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Chris Lao wants to inform you... about auto insurance


Flood victim Christopher Lao, whose hapless outburst on GMA News programs last August launched an online wave of taunts and satire by social media users, stars in his own commercial which was released on YouTube on Thursday. Lao plays himself repeating the same words, including the now-famous quote, "I should have been informed," that he uttered to GMA reporter Jun Veneracion, who is played by an actor in the commercial for BPI. "This is my way of saying yes to life," Lao told GMA News. "Some good finally came out of this crisis. It became an opportunity. I can now pay for the tuition of my daughter." Lao is currently studying for the bar exams next month, but took time off to shoot the commercial last weekend. The commercial ends with the graphic, "Nature doesn't inform you." BPI used Lao to pitch its auto loans that come with one year free insurance covering acts of nature. In addition to BPI's YouTube channel, the ad is expected to air in cinemas. Lao said that the advertising agency McCann Erickson had first approached him in September to sound him out about the ad. He admitted to being uneasy about the idea, but had what he called an epiphany, that "I won't think of what other people say anymore." The production team that made the commercial showed him video of the news report so he could replicate the emotion of his reaction to the incident. "I was okay na at the time," he said. According to Lao, he had gone through a depression after a version of the news report, shortened by a viewer to include just him, was uploaded on YouTube and shared widely, triggering ridicule on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The original news story featured other victims of Typhoon Kabayan. Lao had driven his car into a flooded street in Quezon City where it began to drift as a GMA News camera crew was shooting in the vicinity. The Twitterworld was buzzing with mostly positive chatter about the ad, including at least one tweep confessing to having a crush on the buff Lao. — Howie Severino/Curated by AM Marzoña/TJD, GMA News
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