Critics poke fun at slogan

Friday, January 6, 2012

TOURISM promotion efforts suffered another blow Friday over claims its new slogan copied an old Swiss one, having already ditched an earlier campaign that allegedly plagiarized Poland’s.

Hours after the government rolled out its “It’s more Fun in the Philippines” campaign, Internet pundits pointed to a 1951 Swiss National Tourist Office ad that proclaimed, “It’s more fun in Switzerland!”

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Dennis Gorecho, who described himself as a Manila lawyer, criticized the tourism department for spending a large amount of money on what appeared to be a copycat ad
and linked his post to a website of the old Swiss poster.

“DOT (the Department of Tourism) spent millions to come up with an ad campaign that seemed to have been used from one that is already more than 60 years old,” Gorecho wrote on his wall on the social networking site Facebook.

However, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez and other officials swiftly rejected the new copycat allegations.

“The line isn’t a manufactured slogan. It’s simply the truth about our country. Don’t be swayed by people who are trying to punch holes in it,” Jimenez tweeted.

“If you look hard enough, you might even find an old ad that says, ‘It’s more fun in
Alcatraz!’” he added, referring to the notorious former US prison.

The tourism department has projected 4.2 million tourist arrivals in 2012, from 3.7 million last year. The target is to breach the 10-million mark by 2016.

“Ok, so Switzerland used ‘It’s more fun--’ in 1951 . That’s 61 years ago. Even intellectual property rights expire after 50 yrs,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said, repeating another lawyer’s Twitter comment.

Other critics said they preferred the old slogan “Wow! Philippines.”

“It may be true that it’s more fun in the Philippines but Wow Philippines was a far better tourism slogan,” one tweeted.

The Philippine campaign’s hash tag, #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines, itself became one of the top trending topics on Twitter.

Ownership

In November 2010, the Philippine Government was forced to scrap a similar campaign that turned into a marketing disaster amid allegations it plagiarized a Polish campaign.

Interviewed before the flak started, some leaders of Cebu’s tourism industry expressed optimism about the new campaign slogan.

In his Facebook account, entrepreneur Jay Aldeguer of the Islands Group said the campaign “seems honest, simple, and can evolve into something big, mainly because everyone can relate to it, both the Filipinos who are expected to help shout it out, and the visitors and the tourists we are targeting.”

He said the most strategic move the tourism department seems to be taking is to “try to cultivate a sense of pride and ‘ownership’ of the campaign so that we are able to optimize the Filipinos’ penchant for creating online presence and noise to make it go viral.”

Hotel, Resort & Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) President Hans Hauri said he found the slogan refreshing.

“It’s engaging, as every citizen and overseas Filipino worker is a brand ambassador without major bending or contortion. Each one can act naturally,” he said. “I bet it will be a great success if we all embrace it, promote it, run with it. Let’s make
tourism the number one engine to economic growth.”

Mila Espina, of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s tourism committee, said she still prefers “Wow! Philippines” because of its ability to evoke fun and amazement.

She suggested tweaking the slogan to “It’s fun in the Philippines” and expressed hope that it will “last longer than the rest, which perished with the past tourism leaders.” (AFP)