Tony Apilado
was born in 1940 and grew up in Hawai'i as one of nine children. His
mom raised the kids while his dad worked on the sugar plantations in
Wahiawa.
Through a combination of forces, Tony moved to
New York City as a young adult. A story of homeboy makes good, he ended up working as a hot shot
art director at NY ad agencies.
In 1988 Tony decided it was time to come
back to Honolulu. With his credentials he landed a plum job
at a big deal ad agency. He soon discovered that the scene
in Honolulu was not quite the same as in NYC.
In short,
the ONLY two 'products' his clients sold in Hawai'i were hotels and macadamia
nuts. To make matters worse, the ONLY images his clients would approve for their ads, over and over again,
were typical man/woman 'romance' shots in Waikiki or of a de-peopled
'nature'.

Bored beyond belief,
Tony quit after three years. and started working for a crisis shelter
with a branch in Waikiki.
Ironically,
some of his clients might have ended up at the crisis shelter
because of ads like those that Tony worked on earlier in his life. |