Milo, McDonald's hit the spot with Philippines' viewers

We see a guy reaching for a book on a rather high shelf in a library. He tips the balance of the shelf, which then creates a domino effect of other shelves tipping over. In the foreground of the shot, a librarian cringes in pain as the falling shelves appear to collapse on her head.

In the traffic jam version, a police officer is trying to direct cars trapped in congestion. Two cars collide at an intersection and his splitting headache is juxtaposed with two cars crashing into his temples.

There's been an attempt here to visually connect splitting headaches with the situation that caused them. It's a nice attempt coming from the biggest player in the category. It's also more encouraging that, as a whole, the category has made progress in beginning to steer away from the usual clichés. We're seeing less and less of the before and after headache scenarios we were so plagued with in the early days. People already know enough about what these products do. I think that the category has matured and is now venturing into a more humorous arena. In terms of production values, though, there was much more that could have been done to make the spots more entertaining. It still is the usual 'not a bad idea, but not executed well enough'. The direction and cinematography could have been pushed much further.

Dave Ferrer, ECD, JWT Philippines