Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. on Tuesday lauded the Department of Tourism (DOT) for terminating its contract with advertising agency, DDB Philippines, for promotional tourism campaigns saying its was a “correct” move.
In a Viber message to reporters, Revilla lamented that the DDB Philippines’ shortcomings amid the launching of the new tourism slogan are such a humiliation to the country.
“The Department of Tourism is more than justified in terminating its agreement with DDB Philippines. DDB’s admitted ‘oversight’ has caused the country embarrassment,” he said.
“We are one with the Filipino people in the indignation expressed towards the shortcomings of DDB that resulted in infirmities in the recently launched campaign of the DOT,” he added.
The DOT’s tourism campaign for the country backfired after it was discovered that the DDB Philippines had used stock shots from tourist destinations abroad in a promotional video for the launch of a new tourism campaign.
On Sunday, the DDB Philipines “profusely” apologized for the usage of “highly inappropriate” images, which included sand dunes in Brazil and rice terraces in Indonesia.
“While the use of stock footage in mood videos is standard practice in the industry, the use of foreign stock footage was an unfortunate oversight on our agency’s part,” it said.
In a separate statement, Senator Nancy Binay said the government should have learned from its previous mistakes including the originality of logo, slogan, design, or video clips.
“We are supposed to show authenticity? These kinds of promotional anomaly directly affect the travelers’ decisions, and at the same time portray a negative image of how we promote our destinations,” Binay said.
The DOT said an investigation into the “unfortunate oversight” is ongoing and has terminated the contract with the ad agency.
Revilla, meanwhile, lauded the DOT for taking the “right step” to making DDB Philippines accountable for the controversies hounding the new tourism campaign.
“I likewise commend the DOT in its swift action of exacting accountability from DDB Philippines,” he said.
Binay earlier warned against changing the country’s tourism slogan and has been urging the government to retain the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign.
“The paramount task is to ensure that there will be no pause in promoting our destinations despite the snag. Baka pwede pa naman ibalik si ‘Fun’ dahil sa problema ni ‘Love’ ngayon (Maybe we can bring back ‘Fun’ because ‘Love’ seems to have a problem now),” she added. (PNA)