Memories are best triggered through scent.
This Christmas, Downy, with Miss Universe 2015 and hug ambassadress Pia Wurtzbach, celebrated moments worth remembering with family, friends, fans, and Filipinos whose stories are both inspiring and heart-warming.
Dubbed as the #Share100Hugs Tour, the hug campaign’s goal is to bring back love in the center of Filipino Christmas. On video, Pia was shown to give out hugs to people closest to her heart—her style team, her long-time friends, select Pianatics, and her mentor Tito Nad Bronce whom she talked about dearly and teary-eyed as the one who always believed and stayed by her. Onstage, she reminded the audience of how therapeutic hugs can be as they activate the release of happy hormones and shared that according to a study, we need at least four daily for survival.
“After you tell your loved ones ‘I love you,’ you hug. Care is best expressed not by words but by acts,” said Pia to which her co-hosts agreed that Downy’s part in the intimate act is to make the gesture last longer in memory. With this, Pia introduced five sets of people that represent the different emotions evoked by varying meanings of an embrace.
The show featured the faces behind the five moving stories: Diane, a deaf and mute mother and breadwinner to her two children, communicates her affection through hugs; Dhorie, an OFW, makes up for the distance and time lost from her children by hugging them for a good minute before leaving again this December; Fiancés Kenjie and JJ, and business partners Catherine and Robi, both same-sex couples, affirm their love every time they hold close; and elder couple Fernanda and David Baky, a retired teacher and a leader in the US World Relief Corporation respectively, have always refreshed their marriage with every hug until now as they celebrate their 51st anniversary.
The hug fest was almost over when race car driver and Pia’s beau Marlon Stockinger surprised the hug ambassadress herself by being present to give her a short message and a long embrace. The two led the highlight of the evening: lighting up the grand tree.
The audience shared a hug with each other as they lighted up the first ever hug-powered Christmas tree that illuminated the Eastwood Mall Open Park.
Standing at 50ft and adorned with red roses, the Christmas tree also emanated the fragranced scent of the Downy Parfum Collection in the area. It reminded the crowd that hugs are better appreciated when warm and sweet-scented, a quality assured by the leading fabric enhancer. The tree likewise holds a small chamber of mirrors where people can activate the gigantic tree’s lights by embracing their companions.
Among the crowd who supported the campaign were celebrities Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla, Melissa Ricks, Say Alonzo, Helga Krapf, and Princess Velasco who were present with their own loved ones to hug.
Backstage after the event concluded, Pia described the campaign to be a gesture of gratitude as “we tend to forget to say thank you to the people around us because we’re with them every day.” Further, she expressed her gratefulness to everyone who extended an arm to make the hug campaign possible.
“Lahat nung nakayakap ko, parang sentimental ‘yung feeling because when you say thank you to someone, you go back to all the moments, experiences, memories you have with them,” she said.
True enough, this occasion proved that memories truly are best stirred through scent.
As Downy Parfum promises to not fade from wash to wear, Filipinos can be sure that every embrace stays long after it’s over, guaranteed to be remembered.
