Why do we need to keep replacing our slogans?
Former tourism secretary and now Senator Richard Gordon posed this question to the Department of Tourism (DOT) as he urged the agency to reuse the “Wow Philippines” promotional slogan he launched in 2002 as the then DOT secretary.
“Ang nakakapikon lang, marami naman tayong magagaling. Saka bakit ba tayo palit ng palit? ‘Amazing Thailand’ has been there for a long time, ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’. Sinabi ko na sa kanila iyan, hindi naman nakikinig eh,” GMA News quoted Gordon as saying.
(What is irritating is we have so many good people. Why do we need to keep replacing our slogans? ‘Amazing Thailand’ has been there for a long time, ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’. I already told them by they don’t listen.)
Gordon’s suggestion comes amid recent accusation that the DOT’s “Sights” promotional video released on June 12 was a allegedly “copycat” prompting the department to come up with the new tourism slogan “Experience the Philippines.”
The DOT also cancelled the contract with advertising agency McCann World Philippines, which produced “Sights”, after netizens noticed the ad video’s similarities with the 2014 South Africa tourism ad. The contract was worth P650 million.
This is not the first time the DOT has been accused of copying other countries’ tourism slogans. The 2010 “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” slogan is said to have been copied from Poland’s tourism ad while the 2012 “It’s more fun in the Philippines” tagline is similar to the 1951 tourism campaign ad “It’s more fun in Switzerland.”
Gordon also believes that the government should not spend so much on another tourism campaign when he did not pay any advertising agency for the “Wow Philippines” campaign.
“Wala akong binayaran”, he said.
(I did not pay anything.)
Photo Credit: Lakbay Pilipinas
