It's More Fun in the Philippines because... It's More Fun to Bash?!

"Criticizing something like the 'Its More Fun in the Philippines' campaign is pretty much like attempting to abort a fetus."

Upon seeing all of the criticisms regarding the country's latest tourism slogan, this became my FB status.

Because really, why are these people trying to kill early on something that has not proven itself yet? It really is like trying to kill a fetus who has not seen what the 'real' world is like.

Oh, maybe it has proven something. It has proven that it can cause a major stir. Web exposure is one thing, becoming a trending topic is another. And as PR people puts it, 'publicity, whether good or bad, is still publicity.' In this case, the campaign may have gained all the flak that 'angry tweeters' have to throw out, but it's still a stir.

Probably they still have the attachment with the WOW campaign. Sure. But let me quote Vicente Romano III on his article on ABS-CBNNews.com:

I can’t really blame them for their unwavering loyalty to the WOW brand. It appeals to us Pinoys. We use it for things we luv!

But they don’t know that we don’t use it in Japan – our third largest market, because they don’t understand the word WOW and there is no direct equivalent of the word in their language. They don’t know that even in the US – our number one market (and where they fully understand the word WOW but maybe not appreciate it as we do), we dropped it and used another slogan because there was no traction. And they don’t know that in the last few years that we have been using the brand, we have steadily lost market share to the point where Vietnam has overtaken us in terms of tourist arrivals.

Of course you can argue that there are many other reasons for our declining market position – lack of infrastructure, traffic, lousy airport, lack of promotional budget., etc. You may even blame GMA (of which I’m tempted to agree ;-)). But it might interest you to know that at the time when Vietnam overtook us, they had far worse infrastructure than ours (small airport, limited road network), and operating on a smaller promotional budget than ours.

And this Vicente Romano is the one 'responsible' for the 'Pilipinas Kay Ganda' campaign, the one which gained the most criticisms in Philippine tourism history. (Personally, though, the slogan is good, its graphics is another thing altogether.)

Then Ramon Jimenez is gaining flak for the slogan being a copycat of a 1951 Swiss tourism campaign? FYI: intellectual property rights expire after 50 years, and the campaign is 61 years old. If this is a literary work (novel, poem, etc.), this would have been a public domain, meaning they won't earn royalties anymore.

Another point to ponder, quoting Romano:

Never mind that Switzerland used it way back in 1951. Or that there was “Truly Tuscany” before Malaysia’s “Truly Asia”, Amazing Australia before Amazing Thailand, and Incredible Italy before Incredible India.

No. We can’t stoop down to their level. Iba ang Pinoy. Kailangan Orig!

Side comment: Sir, kasi daw lupain na raw tayo ng manggagaya. Kung kokopyahin pa raw natin yung campaign ng Swiso, copier's paradise na raw tayo.

Granted that we 'copied' the slogan, we can make it work to be as effective or more effective campaign than Switzerland did, right?


Another thing that the campaign has proven is that most of the Filipinos over the web, obviously, are against the whole DOT management, and the whole Aquino administration. In other words, dissatisfaction with the government.

But what else is new? These people have done that same criticism with 'Pilipinas Kay Ganda' and the same criticism with the Arroyo administration, and with all the administration that has lead the Philippines.

Heck, these people really think that there will never be one administration that will satisfy ALL your demands.

Or maybe these people think that, as Romano puts it, 'it's more fun to bash.'


Let us not forget what the concept of campaign is all about. It's about promoting a person or place, and enumerating the good things that goes with it. You'll never find degrading and defamatory statements in a campaign. Unless it's a black propaganda campaign or smear campaign. And unless it's the TV show 'Gossip Girl' who infamously used the bad reviews as its publicity campaign.

Sure there may be poverty (yeah), poor infrastructures (right) and corruption (ugh!). There may be traffic, worst airport and what-have-you.

But let us not forget that there's more to the 7,107 islands in this country than those things.


And let me quote Romano one more time:

Sure, you have all the right to bash this one and assert your own idea. You live in this country and, ultimately, you are a co-owner of whatever country brand our government rolls out.

But unless you can get the other 95 million co-owners behind your idea, perhaps we will all be better off supporting this one, instead.

Tama...

Kaya suporta na lang, pwede?