The government will keep the new ‘’Love the Philippines’’ slogan despite the ridicule that the campaign drew after it released a promotion video using stock footage of foreign locations, Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said Wednesday.
Frasco has since terminated the Department of Tourism’s contract with the DDB Philippines ad agency responsible for the video.
However, at a tourism forum, she said the DOT would keep using the tourism slogan that was launched on June 27.
Frasco also repeatedly used the slogan in her speech.
Senator Nancy Binay, however, said the DOT should stop using the slogan because of the embarrassment caused by the video.
She noted that the campaign has lost its redeeming value and could no longer be salvaged.
“I hope the DOT is level-headed enough to accept this. We expect them to be agile and move forward from failure because we don’t want the slogan to become a national embarrassment and to look like losers,” she said.
“We need to accept that it really happens—marketing campaigns fail. In DOT’s case, it’s best to move forward from failure and save the brand at all costs. We cannot afford to put to waste everything that we built for Philippine tourism. Let’s do the right thing to protect the integrity of the brand,” Binay said.
After DOT’s advertising agency admitted using stock footage from foreign locations in its marketing video, social media users have come up with memes and lampoons poking fun at the “Love the Philippines” slogan.
The recommendation, she said, is to revert to the tried-and-tested campaign.
She said that it may look good on paper, the campaign was beaten and battered in the real world.
She said the people behind the enhanced branding should accept that the “Love” campaign is now in marketing limbo.
“We appreciate the actions taken by the DOT against the ad agency. But the big question right now is whether or not to continue with the ‘Love’ campaign,” Binay said.
“Tourism is a sensitive market. Political unrest, negative media and people’s perception influence travelers’ decisions,” she added.
Earlier, noted film director Erik Matti slammed journalists covering the story for “lazy news gathering,” saying they relied on mere press statements that do not reveal the truth about the multi-million-peso ad campaign.
“The news about this issue is lazy news gathering. Everyone is relying on the press statements of the different parties involved in this,” Matti said in a Facebook post.
“If reporters and journalists go a bit more in depth on research and interviews, the real story will come out. Talk to the agency, talk to the production people, talk to the prod house involved,” he said.
