Please Pray the Rosary (partially found Filipino religious TV commercials; 1990s)

A still from the commercial, featuring Mama Mary.

Status: Partially Found

The Pray The Rosary advocacy was commissioned by the late Irish-American Catholic priest Patrick Payton in 1991. The commercial was made for the Golden Jubilee of the Family Rosary Crusade in 1992. The voiceover representing the Virgin Mary's voice was done by Lydia Sison and the male announcer was Jess Decolongon.

The commercial became iconic to Filipinos who watched it in the 1990s. It also has a creepy factor to viewers due to the background music and the still image which starts very close to the viewer. It is aired before the show and aired alongside ABC-5's Station ID. The commercial was later became part of FRC's hour-long programs, with the exception of its spin-off series Family Matters.

Premise

Promotional poster of PPTR

It consists of a monochrome image of the Virgin Mary's face (taken from Our Lady of Medjugorje) appearing and zooming out from the screen with a choir singing in the background. The Virgin Mary then says "I ask every family: Please, pray the Rosary". In a later variant of the commercial, Mary says "I ask every Filipino family: Please pray the rosary."

When Mary says the Please Pray The Rosary part, the said phrase appeared and the signature of Mama Mary appears on the bottom right. The male voice then said "The family that prays together, stays together" with a rosary on the screen. The said phrase originated from Fr. Patrick Peyton.

In another variant, the Virgin Mary's face appears, but instead of zooming out, the color gradually changes from bluish-gray to a red version. People usually call this the "scarlet" version, or the "fade-in" version. There is another variant recalled by a viewer, at the end the rosary was animated and the logo of ABC-5 appeared in the bottom right corner.

The commercial varies according to viewers when it was first aired. One person said that it was aired in 1994 while others said 1996. Its predecessor was "We Ask For Peace" or "Pray The Rosary Daily" which was aired in 1992. From October 2002 to October 2003, PPTR is been temporarily replaced by the reciting of "Hail Mary" in many languages, which is line with "The Year of The Rosary" and in anticipation of the country's hosting of the 4th World Meeting of Families in January 2003. Its successor was "The Choice is Yours!" which replaced PPTR on December 2003 and was aired until 2004.

There is a newspaper variant bearing the same image and message. A special version of the newspaper ad furnished by the telecommunication giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company is also exists and the special version of that newspaper ad bears the same image and message, but however, the PLDT logo, along with the company's slogan "The Telecommunications Company" are also displayed.

There is a supposed radio variant aired on 106.7 Energy FM, formerly known as Kool 106 & 106.7 Dream FM and went as follows:

"The Family That Prays Together, Stays Together. Please Pray The Rosary... This is the Associated Broadcasting Company, on FM We are Metro Manila's Comfortable Choice: 106.7 Dream FM".

There is an in-credit variant which is seen on the credits of ABC 5's programs (notably on original Entertainment and News programming as well on Tagalog-dubbed Japanese animes), just before the copyright stamp and went as follows:

"The Family That Prays Together, Stays Together. Please Pray The Rosary."

Availability

The commercial was said to be aired prior to December 1992 on PTV-4 and IBC-13. It would expand to other channels such as ABS-CBN on Saturdays, RPN-9, RJTV, and Studio 23. It later became another standard identification on ABC-5. The ad was said to be aired until 2018 on S+A on Saturdays. The newspaper version of the said ad was placed in the Manila Standard's September 8, 1992 issue featuring the PLDT logo, and on September 13, 1992. A poster version is rarely exists, the poster already posted inside the Medical Towers Makati, and at the now closed Harrison Plaza chapel, but it also made cameo appearances in films, such as "Okay Ka, Fairy Ko the Movie 2" (1992), "Boy Gising!" and "Pulis Patola 2" (both 1995) and "Lupe: A Seaman's Wife" (2003).

The scarlet version was since mentioned in 2018 on a FB group about creepy advertisements and since then there are search efforts and mentions about it. However, on February 24th, 2021, Richie DG Juan uploaded the commercial on his channel, and a high-quality version of the 1st version was uploaded 4 days before. The 2nd version of the scarlet version of the commercial was recently uploaded by UndustFixation on February 10th, 2024. The PLDT branded newspaper ad was mentioned by a FB page about advertisements is posted on January 26, 2023.

The radio variant was recently mentioned by a Facebook group related to obscure and lost media in the Philippines on February 13, 2024.

Other variants including the 2004 Dream FM variant haven't yet resurfaced on the web.

Gallery

The "scarlet" version of PPTR.

High-quality version of the 1st version.

First PPTR video uploaded on YouTube.

The in-credit version of PPTR, timestamped 5:44.

The "scarlet" version of PPTR, second version.

The apparent radio version of PPTR. (Audio only)

Trivia

• The song that the choir is singing in the 2nd Scarlet version alongside the ending of the TVC was actually No. 4::Te Deum from Quattri Pezzi Sacri