FAMILY sits front and center in fast food giant Jollibee’s latest campaign called “Family Thanksgiving Month” (to be held annually henceforth every May). This was launched via a press conference on both Zoom and Facebook Live last week featuring media personalities Edric and Joy Mendoza. Still, the star of the show was the star of yet another Jollibee commercial, actress Anne Curtis.
“For us at Jollibee, this [pandemic] brought about a very powerful truth: all of us are spending more time with our families, and it has never happened before, and might never happen again,” said Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) Philippines Country/Regional Marketing Head and Jollibee Philippines Marketing Head Francis Flores about the impetus of the campaign.
A Jollibee representative told BusinessWorld via Zoom that Family Thanksgiving Month has no new promos or new products.
“Jollibee has been an advocate of Filipino family joy and togetherness,” said Mr. Flores during the press conference. To drive the point home, he mentioned what one of their jingles already said: “Dito sa Jollibee, pamilya lahat tayo (Here at Jollibee, we’re all family).” “Our families have been our greatest source of hope, strength, and joy,” he said. To be fair, prior to Jollibee’s expansion into a veritable empire with holdings across the globe (JFC acquired US chain The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in 2019; and has many other brands both here and abroad), it did start out as a family operation, founded by Tony Tan Caktiong in the 1970s.
Ms. Curtis — who married restaurateur and media personality Erwan Heussaff in 2017 — said that her stint as an ambassador for Jollibee began around the time of her engagement with her now-husband (2016). “[For] this journey of my own family, Jollibee has been there from the very start,” said Ms. Curtis. She had given birth to a daughter, Dahlia, last year. “Being a wife, and now a mother; it’s really turning out to be the most beautiful journey,” she said. During the Zoom conference, Ms. Curtis was shown videos of her family greeting her.
Through Family Thanksgiving Month, “We hope to start a new tradition of gratitude for our loved ones and everyone who we treat as family,” said Mr. Flores. — JLG