Marne L. Kilates, Poet, Copywriter

By Romeo D. Bohol

It is conventional wisdom in the advertising business that poets make bad copywriters. Where it comes from is anybody’s guess. Mine is this: it’s mostly the bad poets who become copywriters.

Marne was a rare and brilliant exception.

When the TV station IBC-13 became government-owned, and therefore cash-strapped, much of its programming were reruns of American movies and Japanese TV shows, dubbed in Filipino. DDB Philippines was asked to produce its station ID. Marne was the ad agency’s Creative Director then; I was Strategic Planner. But the task seemed so easy I did not bother him anymore.

The message was obvious: those movies and TV shows, though foreign productions, contained themes and conveyed values that were universal enough to be, well, Filipino. The celebrity endorser was obvious: Grace Nono, who was leading the Philippine front of a global surge of world music. Pinoy ethnic.

There was another reason I did not ask Marne to write the IBC-13 theme song. I was a competent copywriter myself. Heck, I had been a copywriter longer than Marne had been a poet. So I wrote the song. Grace Nono refused to sing it. I’m sorry, sir, said my producer; Grace said it sucked.

And Grace was right. My lyrics were a string of adjectives, which, in hindsight, broke that golden rule of creative writing to show, not tell. Adjectives are a mannerism of copywriters because clients love copy that praises their brand. Thank God for poets.

And so Marne came to the rescue.

May lukso ng dugo
May igting ng damdamin
May kurot sa puso
Na Pinoy ang Dating

Our dear friend and fellow Brewer Marne died last Saturday, and left a hole in our heart. That hole will take a long time to close. I hope it takes forever, for that is what I will remember him by.