Passionade Creative campaign brings Filipina brand founders into the spotlight

In the Philippines’ brand landscape, many familiar names appear to carry traditionally masculine identities – from bold newspapers to humour-driven transport services and sauces found in almost every kitchen. But a new campaign by Passionade Creative is challenging those assumptions by spotlighting the women behind them.

Launched in celebration of Women’s Month, the Brand Herstory Lessons initiative from Passionade Creative aims to highlight the Filipina founders, inventors and innovators whose contributions have often gone overlooked in mainstream narratives.

The campaign comes from Passionade Creative itself, a female-founded advertising agency, which is using the series to reframe the stories behind well-known Filipino brands and cultural staples. Through social content and storytelling, the agency peels back what it describes as layers of “his-tory” to reveal the “her-stories” behind everyday products and institutions.

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At the heart of the initiative is a simple observation: the branding and legacy of many successful ventures have historically been framed through a male lens. As a result, the women behind them are frequently left out of the conversation.

Yet a closer look at some of the country’s most recognisable brands reveals a different narrative.

For instance, a well-known sauce commonly found in Filipino kitchens – often associated with a masculine brand identity – traces its origins to a recipe purchased from a female lechon vendor in Manila. Meanwhile, a motorcycle-hailing service widely recognised for its male riders and humour-driven branding was conceived and continues to be run by a young woman. Even one of the Philippines’ most prominent newspapers, often perceived as a hard-edged and masculine institution, was primarily founded by a woman.

By surfacing stories such as these, Passionade Creative hopes to encourage audiences to rethink assumptions about leadership, innovation and ownership within the country’s business and creative sectors.

But the campaign is not intended as a simple history lesson. Instead, the agency positions Brand Herstory Lessons as a way to reshape how people see contemporary brand building – and who they imagine behind it.

By highlighting overlooked contributions, the campaign aims to inspire more women to see their own entrepreneurial journeys as stories worth telling.

“As advertisers, we know that the way that we present things to people has meaning. So it matters that we present things creatively and truthfully,” Nikki Golez, founder and chief creative officer of Passionade Creative, explained. “And we can’t wait for more female-founded brands to really embrace that too.”

For Passionade Creative, the campaign also reflects a broader industry conversation about representation in storytelling. In a market where brands increasingly compete through narrative and cultural resonance, the agency argues that acknowledging the women who shaped these businesses is not just about correcting the record – it is about expanding the possibilities of who future founders and innovators might be.

Join us on 21 May 2026 at Content360 Philippines and be part of the honest, hard-hitting conversations redefining content effectiveness in an AI-shaped, zero-click world!

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