Encarnacion Bechaves (lost commercial for Filipino florist; 1990s)

Status: Lost

Encarnacion Bechaves is a Filipino flower shop located in Manila, Philippines. Sometime during the 1990s, they produced a memorable commercial spot that would have aired locally on the ABC 5 (now TV5), RPN-9, and possibly also IBC-13. The commercial is well-known as having been unintentionally disturbing to viewers. No copy of the commercial has been uploaded online, and it is considered lost.

Premise

The commercial starts off with the camera zooming into red roses in front of a dark background; the song "Shepherd Moons" by Enya begins playing. A daughter in a white toga-style dress hugging her mom is seen, then a set of three bouquets. It then fades into another scene of a couple, the girl holding a bouquet that the man has given her, with the voiceover saying "When you care enough to send the best..." over a segue to a scene of a lilac bouquet zooming in and to the right while the voiceover continues: "Say it with flowers from Encarnacion Bechaves". The "Encarnacion Bechaves" logo in Alex Brush font appears. The ad then continues to fade through two more scenes featuring flowers, overshadowing the logo.^[1]

Another shot of the red roses, then a fade into a final scene featuring a lady in a red dress (some remember a black or white dress) facing away from the camera. The lady turns to look at the camera, smiling through wildly disheveled hair, and holds roses (or a single rose) up to her face, further obscuring it.^[2] The camera pauses on the shot of the lady's face until ultimately fading into another screen with the logo and the addresses of the shop's three branches in a Teletype font.^[3] At this point, a male narrator^[4] intones:

"When the occasion becomes special. You can make it more special, with flowers, from Encarnacion Bechaves. Encarnacion Bechaves. When you want to show how much you really care."

A short version also might have existed and aired alongside the long version. However, this lacks plenty of scenes, including the scene with the girl. It is said that it is directed to the pictures of flowers and the flower shop with a voiceover and Shepherd Moons playing. It was said to run for 15 seconds and was aired in the timeframe 1993-1994.

Some people claim that the lady was portrayed by Filipino actress Cita Astals, but this has not been confirmed. It is however generally agreed that her scene was much more unsettling than necessary to promote flowers.

Search history

Early search

There was no organized search effort for the commercial until recently. However, early mentions of the commercial was traced back to April 2000 in PinoyExchange. Since then, the commercial was mentioned by several more people in the threads of the said forum.

In 2018, the commercial became a hot topic in the newly-established The Spooky Advertisements Group which mainly focused on creepy Filipino commercials. A year before, Jemmanuel Cordero made an audio recreation of the commercial using his own voice which also garnered attention. Several people contacted the FB page of Encarnacion Bechaves, however, they never responded. Along those who messaged is Dalton Channel, a Filipino YouTuber focused on nostalgia content.

The commercial was mentioned in the Pieces of Filipino Lost Media video of Philippine Television Archives in 2021.^[5] A semi-search effort was made with the help of some Lost Commercials Foundation members and an LCF member minimort2 found out that Encarnacion Bechaves had a sister company called Manila Blooms now Paraiso Flowers thanks to a text in their website from 2001. In the early 2010s, a third company got involved, named Myflowertowne nicknamed Flowertowne. Although after these discoveries, the search stopped. Philippine Television Archives went on to mention the commercial in part 2 of the aforementioned video and its own video.^[6]^[7]

"On The Hunt 6" Search

On July 4, 2022, the Lost Media Wiki launched the sixth "On The Hunt" search, with the topic being the Encarnacion Bechaves commercial. On that same day, CLASSMC started organizing the mentions of the commercial in PinoyExchange in a document with translations and an index of the sightings.

The search was then advertised to both TSAG (The Spooky Advertisements Group) and PAHG (The Philippine Advertisement History Group), and later on r/ph and PinoyExchange. r/ph mainly garnered attention and several replies from eyewitnesses were seen. Several eyewitnesses also reached out about their experiences seeing the commercial and thanks to one, it's been figured out that a short version of the ad might exists. Meanwhile, dycaite sent a message to the FB page of Encarnacion Bechaves, and another company named Flowertowne is also discovered to be linked to Encarnacion Bechaves.

On July 27, 2022, a person in TSAG reached out to have the VHS tape of the commercial and have seen it. It was said to be recorded by her uncle back in the day. However, due to family issues, it is unknown if she can get the tape. Along with Encarnacion Bechaves, she also said that he recorded tapes that contain several Philippine TV footages.

Availability

Although there is no official documentation of its existence found online, the earliest known mention of the commercial goes back to the 2000s in the Pinoy Exchange forum, at which point the commercial was still airing. There are currently no copies of the commercial available online, and the only proof of its existence now is the countless recollections of its viewers.

The general consensus is that this commercial was aired in the 1990s up to the early 2000s, specifically from 1993 until 2005. It seems to have appeared mainly on the TV channels ABC 5 (now TV5) between WWF (now WWE), RPN-9 (now CNN Philippines) between The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime, and Goggle V", and possibly IBC 13 between Maskman, Masked Rider BLACK and All-Star Wrestling. Other shows included that it might have aired on RPN 9 between WWE Smackdown in 2002, Beakman's World, Beauty School Plus, among others. It might have also aired during Jetman and Fiveman, both aired on RPN-9 and ABC-5. It also aired alongside English shows, pageants, boxing matches, and an award night from 2004 said to be one of the last shows the commercial aired. Meanwhile, it might also have aired in ABC-5's All-Star Wrestling, though this is all just speculation according to a TV schedule from 1994. According to several reminisces, the commercial aired after a Family Rubbing Alcohol commercial and was followed by an RA Homevision commercial, now both also lost. It was also remembered to have aired alongside an Anzahl Urethrane Car Paints commercial, which is available online. It was also said to be air along with a Green Cross commercial.