Everyone in the advertising industry will readily admit, "Napakaliit ng industriya" (The industry is so small).  This is said in the manner that what goes around, well...obviously comes around.

Scene : 12th floor of GT Tower (where McCann Worldgroup Philippines is based).  I bump into a former colleague who left McCann a few months after I did to concentrate on being a full-time mom.  She's now back in UniversalMcCann (the media division) but only for only three months so as to fill the absence of a media director who went on extended leave.  She was having lunch with another ex-colleague who's now with Mindshare (one of the rival agencies).  A few minutes later, we chance upon another colleague who joins our little meet.

Knowing that this friend was soon to leave UM for ZenithOptimedia, I asked her, "When's your last day?" .  "Today!" she said gleefully .  Chit-chat went on for a few minutes, waxing nostalgic about where everyone else has gone.  With that realization, I remarked, "We should soon have an ex-UM get-together in the very same way ex-J. Walter Thompson folk gather together consistently".  The Thompson people are known for that 'one-big-happy-family' spirit.  I should know.  My dad was an ex-Thompson guy and he would still attend their parties 30 years after he had left.

As our little huddle parted ways, with new beginnings up ahead for our friend moving to ZO, it crossed my mind that while UniversalMcCann has as its current catch phrase, "NEXT THING NOW", it is but plain obvious that there now exists an ex-UniversalMcCann group.  Its catch phrase :  ARE YOU NEXT?