Hogging the headlines and striking the proverbial hot iron that happens to be rainbow colored this time, are three fabulous femme fairies: Felix Petate, Mark Shandii Bacolod, and Tyrone James Ortega.
Petate, known to his legion of supporters as Sassa Gurl makes pop culture history by being the first openly gay “calendar girl” of White Castle.
Generation Xers, of course, has a recollection of its iconic commercial where a lady donned in a red two-piece bikini rides on a white stallion in slow motion for dramatic effect.
Its former well-loved female endorsers include the likes of Lorna Tolentino, Carmi Martin, Cristina Gonzales, Roxanne Guinoo, RR Herrera, and Meg Imperial.
Making the Gurl the liquor brand ambassador is an astute business decision. We can deduce that Felix’s social media digits – 4.6 million followers on TikTok, 620,000 on Facebook, 191,000 subscribers on YouTube, and 91,400 followers on Instagram – made it easier for the top brasses to give it a green light.
Let’s be frank with it, the most popular pink personalities of the present times, Vice Ganda and the devastatingly beautiful, the Other Queen P, Paolo Ballesteros, were not as “lucky” as Sassa Gurl. For sure, the very thought of them being “calendar models” and anyone who dared to suggest them received dagger looks and could have been considered as an “outing one’s self moment” inside a corporate room.
The wittiest part of Sassa’s brand triumph, its catchphrase: “Ang laging nagpapainom tuwing may inuman.”
The politically correct members of the pink community are surely revolted by it because it highlights the “image” of the “gay person” who uses his purchasing power to gain acceptance, affection, and favor, a possible one-night-only tryst perhaps? And that what they say in the vernacular “pag may alak, may balak” is a predatory tactic that must not be encouraged and employed. After all, when it comes to matters of the heart, we all remember what mama said, “you can’t hurry love, you just have to wait”. Really now?
Bacolod, aside from the online victory of his written, produced, and directed by gay drama Love At The End Of The World could not believe that he is of the endorsers of Vine Holistic Medical Aesthetics, owned by the gorgeous Dr. Emily Vine.
“I thought at first it was a joke when I received an inquiry for a meeting,” Bacolod begins. “You know, I also manage the career of Nico Locco, and when they say that he will be a model, I know that it is intended to arouse the curiosity and appeal to the male demographic, I was not surprised about that. Pero ako? Why me?”
He carries on: “As a person who prefers to be behind the scene, I am totally ecstatic about this opportunity to be taking on the front seat.”
“I have never taken looking your best for granted,” avers Bacolod. “Beauty is an essential part of our lives, most especially in the industry that we are in, even though we don’t always realize it. Beauty gives color, love, depth, and a certain radiance to everything.”
The other ambassadors are international model Erla Garcia, reigning Miss Aura International Alexandra Faith Garcia, and Viva Artist Rhen Escaño.
“As the face of the clinic for LGBTQIA+ representation, ang saya-saya lang I am honored, and definitely tickled pink.”
Ortega, Juliana Parizcova Segovia, whose star rose as the winner in the first It’s Showtime Ms. Q and A , rides high on the notoriety scale having starred in a video reaction to the viral Angelica Panganiban’s voter education campaign produced by the Young Public Servants Facebook Page.
Why did Segovia’s parody presentation stir the hornet’s nest and has become a hot topic and a worthy argumentation and debate class subject matter? Watch it, if you have the time and consider it of use and can trigger a personal growth experience.
Compare it with the Panganiban undertaking and pass your own conclusions. The parody of Panganiban’s video is an example of the healthy democracy that we have. There is no reason to be onion-skinned about it.
Surely, the mentally and emotionally intelligent will see it for what it is. The easily amused and amazed ones will lap it up. The bored and disenchanted sector, will avoid it like a plague.
When all the dust and dirt caused by the Segovia video settles, the noise and nuisance, the rants and rage, silence replace it. History and the truth will decide at the appointed time, what he gains from this act. What we sow, we reap, is a universal truth that Ortega and the people behind the video cannot escape.
Trois fées pour régner comme toutes, Felix Petate aka Sassa Gurl, The Kween Shandii Bacolod and Tyrone James Ortega aka as Juliana Parizcova Segovia, curtsy, take a bow as the center stage are all yours. Brava!