Generation

Vice Ganda, Paolo Ballesteros share limelight in fast-food chain commercial

AFTER beloved comedian and unkabogable star Vice Ganda released a commercial with a popular fast-food chain last October 27th, a sequel was quickly in the works.

On November 27, the restaurant posted an advertisement with Vice Ganda and RuPaul’s Drag Race Philippines host, Paolo Ballesteros. In the ad, the two were dressed in the holiday colors of silver and gold, sharing a box of chicken while having a nice conversation.

“Perfect yan for the madlang people,” says Vice with regard to the chicken. But with reference to the show “It’s Showtime.”

“Even better para sa mga dabarkads,” answers Ballesteros cheekily for their noontime program “E.A.T.”

The post was quick to garner thousands of likes and reposts and is now trending all over the internet, with people praising the restaurant for taking more and more steps to represent the LGBTQ+ community.

Netizen reactions

This is not the restaurant’s first time releasing an ad representing the LGBTQ+ community. During Pride Month last June, they posted a video ad that featured an adorable lesbian couple, entitled “You’re my happy place.”

On YouTube, the video has 145, 000 views and over 5, 300 likes thus far.

Despite the conservative nature of the Philippines, thousands of Filipinos have come to show their support for these commercials only, with many being members of the LGBTQ+ community themselves.

In the collaboration between Vice Ganda and Ballesteros, one netizen takes note of how they eat their chicken with their pinkies up, which they said was used in the past to bully or discriminate against younger queer people who would do the same gesture.

“Every gay knows these ‘pilantiks’ [were] used to discriminate younger queers before dahil lang sa way ng paghawak nila ng kutsara, and now it’s on an add [for] a well-known fast-food [restaurant,]” the X user said.

“A queer child was healed.”

Another wrote: “I don’t think you understand how major this is – [for this restaurant,] being one of the leading fast-food chains in the Philippines to have these gay icons in one holiday campaign. They said gay Christmas for everyone!”

Many celebrities such as actress Maine Mendoza and drag queen Eva Le Queen were also quick to show their support for the hosts online.

Gaby Agbulos

Gaby Agbulos wants nothing more than to become a writer -- to be able to tell stories unheard of by the masses. She is currently majoring in Communication at the University of Santo Tomas, and after college, hopes to make an impact with the stories she writes, be it big or small.