"RP outsmiles neighbors, raises P1M for Unicef" (By Daxim L. Lucas, Inquirer, Page A4, July 13, 2009):

One peso for every smile captured on a camera phone?

Sony Ericsson was clearly trying to market its latest gadget, but it managed to do so while helping society's underprivileged at the same time.

On Saturday, the company donated P1 million to the local unit of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), culminating a two-month campaign that "collected" one million smiles from users of its products.

As part of its commitment to Unicef's children's literacy campaign, Sony Ericsson donated P1 for every smile captured in its camera phone kiosks scattered throughout the country.

The donation will go to the Unicef children's education programs.

"It has been said that everyone smiles in the same language," Sony Ericsson corporate vice president Hirokazu Ishizuka said as he turned over the check to Unicef country representative Vanessa Tobin at SM North Edsa.

Ishizuka said the Philippine edition of the regional campaign set a record for the company in terms of the number of smiles "collected."

"We launched the Spread the Smiles campaign in four markets--Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand," he said, adding that over a two-day period, 3,000 smiles were collected in Indonesia, 20,000 in Malaysia and 10,000 in Thailand.

"And one million smiles in the Philippines," he said.

Because of this, Unicef beneficiaries "can smile together with them," he said. "It is truly a heartwarming gesture."

According to Unicef, children can make up about 42 percent of the country's population. Although enrollment in primary schools is high at 90 percent, it significantly declines to only 58 percent for high school.

Thus, for every 10 Filipino schoolchildren, only six will finish grade school, and only four will eventually complete high school.

"This is is unfortunate and we hope that through this campaign, we can touch the lives of some of these children," Sony Ericsson general manager Dennis Manzano said. "We are proud to announce that over a million Filipinos participated in this campaign and gave [their] smiles."

Apart from SM Supermalls, Sony Ericsson also partnered with Digiprint which printed the "smile donations." The "Spread the Smile" campaign collected smile photographs from mall booths, Sony Ericsson outlets and through its official website.

During Saturday's turnover ceremony, Sony "smile ambassador" Sarah Geronimo entertained the audience with a song and launched the new "Sarah Phone" which is a limited edition Sony Ericsson C510 in an "energetic red" color.

(The article included a photo caption of Sarah while performing during the Sony Ericsson event)

SMILE !!!

Pinoy naman kasi kahit napukpuk na ng martilyo ang daliri, makuha pa rin ngumiti.

....kahit napapahiya na,nakangiti pa rin.

....kahit walang ulam nakangiti pa rin

....teka, mababaw lang ba talaga ang kaligayahan ng pinoy?

1 million smile ! We should be proud of the fact that compared to Malaysia or Thailand we had more than 1 million smiles