Fact check: ‘We give the world our best’ not final DOT slogan
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:48 p.m.) — A viral ad campaign in the United Kingdom featuring overseas Filipino workers with the tagline “We give the world our best,” is not an official slogan of the tourism department, which will release a revamped campaign after “consultations with stakeholders,” according to tourism chief Christina Garcia Frasco.
CLAIM: The Department of Tourism has adopted a new branding campaign, “We give the world our best,” replacing the 2012 tagline “more fun in the Philippines.”
RATING: This is false.
FACTS:
What the statement says
In the final round of this year’s Miss Universe Philippines pageant, contestants were asked to answer: “Recently, the Department of Tourism has adopted a new branding campaign. ‘We give the world our best.’ For you, what is the best that we could offer to the rest of the world? Why do you consider it so?”
The question was asked to the final five candidates and was asked by host Xian Lim at around 2:21:08 of the Youtube stream from ABS-CBN.
This was in reference to ads abroad that featured Filipino-British nurse May Parsons, who had administered the world's first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and the slogan "We give the world our best".
Senate tourism committee chairperson Nancy Binay on May 10 called on the Department of Tourism to do away with the campaign that she believes "commodifies Filipinos" and to focus on enhancing the "more fun in the Philippines" slogan coined in 2012.
READ: FULL TEXT: Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Final Question and Answer segment
What the statement left out
The "We Give the World Our Best - The Philippines" ad is a project by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Creative Communications (OPACC) as part of its branding campaign led by Presidential Adviser on Creative Communications Paul Soriano.
In an interview on May 11, Frasco also said that the new slogan is not yet the replacement for the “more fun in the Philippines slogan,” but the Departmen of Tourism is “aligning” with the country branding.
“As I mentioned earlier, we have not yet released the tourism branding campaign for the Department of Tourism. But certainly, we are aligning with the country branding number one, and number two, we are enhancing the branding for the Philippines,” Frasco said.
While Frasco did not distance the DOT from the slogan and threw her support behind the idea, she also said that the department “will enhance the existing slogan in consultation with our stakeholders.” She also said that the DOT “will make sure that it is perfectly aligned with the country branding for the Philippines, that is ‘we give the world our best.’”
“With regard to the publication of the ad, Secretary Paul and I had a meeting the other day, wherein we discussed the iterations for the country branding as it relates to tourism,” Frasco said.
Essential context
Soriano’s post as adviser on creative communications is a new position under the Marcos administration.
In October, the Office of Press Secretary said that the role consists of advising “the chief executive and assist departments and agencies, including government-owned and controlled corporations, on matters that will enhance their information dissemination programs and initiatives.”
The OPACC is under the Office of the President and is not directly connected to the Department of Tourism, but the two have previously worked on shared initiatives, such as naming celebrity Vanessa Hudgens as the country’s new tourism ambassador.
Why we fact-checked this
Frasco said in 2022 that the department is eyeing to replace the country’s decade-old slogan with a new one that is anchored on making the Filipino brand “distinct.”
The DOT has yet to officially unveil the new slogan as of press time.
RELATED: No more 'more fun in the Philippines'? DOT wants new slogan for rebrand
– with reports from Rosette Adel
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to remove a line on when the meeting between Frasco and Soriano happened, as the date of the meeting was not specified.
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