Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 4) — Former Senator Richard Gordon, who previously served as tourism secretary, said the government should not have terminated its contract with advertising agency DDB Philippines and let the latter correct its errors in the campaign video of the “Love the Philippines” tourism branding.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Source on Monday, Gordon said there was indeed negligence on the part of the agency when it used stock footages for the campaign video, which was unforgivable.
Nonetheless, it is important now to move forward with the issue and fix it, he noted.
“They have to redeem themselves,” Gordon said, referring to DDB Philippines.
The former senator said the company can be asked to pay a fine and should be able to show how it can immediately fix the mistakes committed.
The video, which was already deleted online, showed stock footages of destination sites from other countries like Thailand, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.
Prior to the Department of Tourism’s (DOT’s) announcement of its termination of the contract with DDB Philippines, the agency had apologized for the incident, admitting that it did use stock videos.
However, it noted that the audio-visual presentation (AVP) in question “was intended to be a mood video to excite internal stakeholders about the campaign.”
For Gordon, this statement from the agency is nonsense.
“We will forgive what we will not forget and they must pay for the damages to a certain extent,” he said. “And also I ask, what happened to our people in tourism, in the department or for that matter, even in the trade?”
Gordon said the promotional video should have been presented first to the Tourism Congress, which is composed of the different players in the industry.
He also recommended labeling the sites in the video. This will prevent the creators from committing mistakes, and also sell the featured tourism sites to travelers, he added.
Gordon pointed out that this was not the first time the country’s tourism branding was involved in an issue.
He recalled the case of \”Pilipinas Kay Ganda,\” which was allegedly plagiarized from a campaign in Poland.
\”There are so many slogans you can make,\” he said. \”The important thing in an ad is that you involve the people. You not only get admired by it but you get them involved.\”
Gordon also welcomed the new “Love the Philippines” slogan, noting that it can easily be localized like his “WOW Philippines” campaign.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel said DOT did the right move to terminate its contract with DDB Philippines due to \”loss of trust.\”
\”There should be no financial damage to the [government],\” he said. \”DOT should make sure of that. We should refuse to pay professional fees for such an unprofessional work.\”
\”And also demand the return of whatever payment has been made if any connected with the unprofessional work,\” Pimentel added. \”DOT [should] implement better screening of the contractors or service providers.\”
