k r i s a n d r o

Thanks to Ahjay of Porter Novelli for the pic above!

KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) and myself were invited by Estee Teo for a Bloggers Event by Gillette. First up was a nice brunch spread from Serenity@Vivocity and were given a goodie bag each that consisted of a Gillette Power Fusion Atom, Gillette Fusion Hydra Gel and a media kit. To top it all off, we were given a pair of tickets to watch the latest James Bond flick with Gold Class tickets from Golden Village @ Vivocity.

KKNN and I are not fans of Bond but who would pass up on tickets to watch a blockbuster in $30 seats?

Many bloggers have already covered their experience on the event of the brunch and the movie but I will like to touch on something else. After attending quite a bit of blogger events so far, I am most impressed and most intrigued by this particular one. Not because Xiaxue was there, not because of the good food and not because of the freebies. Er… okay. I do admit that I love the Gillette Power Fusion Phantom to death and it is THAT GOOD even though I cannot grow any form of respectable facial hair.

I remember reading about Uniquefrequency’s post titled “Don’t Be The Insurance Salesman At The Party – Doing It Right“, which was on a Samsung event in which I had the privilege to attend. The article that Uniquefrequency wrote is about Daniel Goh who ‘did it right’ by working on relations with the bloggers for some time before organizing an event which in itself, was very nicely organized with no ‘in-your-face’ branding that one might expect.

Now, if the Samsung event was being mild on the branding, the Gillette event’s branding was almost non-existant!

There was no presentation. No contest and nothing to be won. Besides the media kit that is sitting in the goodie bag and the Gillette commercials that were running on TVs during the brunch, there was no mention of Gillette at all by the people from P&G and Porter Novelli! In fact, the ONLY time when Gillette was brought up during the event was when I was conversing with Edwin from P&G and it was me who brought up the topic of the differences between the battery powered Gillette Fusion and the non battery ones.

I really appreciate the team from P&G and Porter Novelli for organizing such a non-pushy event. If there are looking to work long term with the bloggers, this is definitely a great start to a good blogger-brand relationship.

Gillette is also holding an exciting contest! Details below!

Oh! As for the picture of me and Xiaxue..

Here it is….

Fidelis, Me & Xiaxue

=P

I have always been skeptical of locally produced shows. The predictability of the script, the cheesy visuals, horrendous camera skills, half-baked acting & amateurish sound effects, just to name a few. And in some cases, especially in TV serials, I see ALL the bad elements I mentioned come together. It’s no surprise that I have not been watching any local TV show consistently and I seldom ‘risk’ buying tickets to a local show in the cinemas.

All thanks to molemole for telling me that Sheylara was giving out free tickets on behalf of Blog Aloud, I quickly emailed her and msn-ed her almost concurrently to enquire on the availability of two shows, ‘Money No Enough 2′ and ’12 Lotus’.

Luckily, there are still tickets available for ‘Money No Enough 2′ and I asked for a pair for the show at Vivocity on the 7th Aug. FREE tickets! Although I am skeptical of local productions, the lure of a free movie, the good impression of the first installment of ‘Money No Enough’ and Jack Neo were good enough reasons for me to go for it.

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I brought KuKuNehNeh (KKNN) along for the movie and boy, did we enjoy it! I wont reveal the story here as I HATE people who review movies and reveal the plots which totally spoils the movie experience. The script was predictable, the CG was cheesy although commendable for a local production and the advertising was too blatant for my liking. But Jack Neo did magic with the way he told the story. The issues he showcased were close to the Singaporean heart and channeled through incredible acting by the cast, especially through the malaysian actress, Lai Ming, who played the role of a mother in the movie. She was funny, she was believable, she made me tear. Credits to Mark Lee as well for he was the best performing local lad in the movie for me.

Jack Neo

Mark Lee

Lai Ming

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Jack Neo appeared in the theater after the credits rolled and his presence made the event even more worthwhile. He answered questions to the best of his ability and tried as much as he could to answer them in English. Molemole helped me and KKNN take a picture with him together at the end of the show.

I Had a Hand On Jack Neo And He Had His On My GF

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I know that the critics have been harsh on the movie but I think it is definitely worth the money for a movie that will tug at your heartstrings. Thanks again to Sheylara and Blog Aloud for the tickets.