This morning, in all his orange glory, I saw Jollibee the mascot. He was standing on the sidewalk intersecting Makati Avenue and Paseo de Roxas. Jollibee, the icon of Philippine fastfood consumerism and nonbiodegradable food containers, pranced around in all his (her?) glorious, 6.5-foot tall bee-body.
If you haven’t gotten it yet, Jollibee is supposed to be a bee, the counterpart of that clown McDonalds. Ronald McDonald is another story.
The girl standing beside the mascot was decked in the usual Jollibee uniform: the pinstriped blouse, unflattering blue plaid pants and what they call the Jollihat, with demeaning dangling antennaes similar to that of Jollibee’s.
What would she offer me, I wondered as I took the flyer she handed over. It was a 20% discount off on softdrinks for every purchase of some other item.
“Always something for something, eh?” I said to Jolligirl, who was obviously startled that I’d actually addressed her (I was quite early for work and had time to kill). “I mean that you have discounts that McDonald’s doesn’t offer, but it’s always something for something.” I wasn’t really thinking of what I was saying, and anyway I despised Jollibee as much as its rival, but I said it to make her feel that at least someone was paying attention.
She recovered quickly and launched into her pre-prepared speech. “Jollibee does its best to offer its quality food for a low price…”
“I’m sure Jollibee does,” I said, procrastinating going to work, stretching the conversation. But I had to get to work sometime. So I said I had to go, and that I hoped she had a nice day ahead.
The girl smiled at me. “Listen. Here.” She then shoved a coupon into my hand.
It was a coupon for a free ice cream cone at Jollibee.
I pocketed the coupon and said thanks. Jollibee waved at me. I wanted to hand out flyers, suddenly. Maybe I will, someday. It’s an honourable profession.
So awhile ago at lunch I had a nice free ice cream cone coutesy of Jollibee.
Philosophy of the streets: Always something for something. And everything for nothing. Best things in life are free. Yum.
And have a nice weekend.
