It's not fun making a new DOT slogan!

I still haven’t met the new Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. and I only got reviews about him from my close friends in the Tourism industry on how they sized him up. What most of us know about him is that he is an advertising man... and being so, one would have wondered why do we need an advertising man as Tourism Secretary when we can hire his advertising agency if the Aquino regime really wanted to? But never mind; we embraced Sec. Jimenez because we did not want to have a leadership vacuum in the Department of Tourism (DOT) after Sec. Bertie Lim’s resignation was accepted all so suddenly.

My readers know too well my sentiments about Bertie Lim when he was appointed as Tourism Secretary because of the numerous columns that we wrote about him, notably that he acted as a lobbyist for the Open Skies Policy where President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III embraced it hook, line and sinker... but in the end, it has not resulted in new airlines flying to the country. We were on the dot when we said that many airlines do have entitlements to fly to this country but are not availing of these entitlements.

Since he became DOT Chief, we didn’t write a peep about Sec. Jimenez simply because of that old adage, “No news is good news”. Well finally, Sec. Jimenez unveiled the DOT’s new slogan and marketing campaign dubbed “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” So the question begging for an answer is, will such a slogan bring millions of tourists to our shores?

Expectedly, the Palace sycophants instantly praised the new DOT slogan, perhaps because they’re having so much fun inside Malacañang, holding Christmas parties for the PSG, while Filipinos in Northern Mindanao were dying from the floodwaters spawned by storm Sendong! That disaster spoiled everyone’s Christmas party because many Filipinos chose to stop their Christmas parties and instead donate the cost for the relief operations. Yes, there was fun in giving to the needy than in receiving. But this was not so for the PSG in Malacañang and P-Noy who enjoyed their party.

Sendong ended our disastrous year 2011 and now that we’re just starting year 2012, more than two dozen people died in the slopes of Compostela Valley. What a way to begin the New Year... with the international news focused on Sendong (now the killer in the typhoon ravaged areas is Leptospirosis) and now the international news is focused on Compostela Valley. So when a foreigner (a potential tourist to visit the Philippines) watches the news on TV and sees the natural disasters happening around the Philippines... now where’s the fun there?

We know too well that the previous DOT slogan “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” fell flat on Bertie Lim’s face because they did not even research this slogan well and as it turned out, it copied the Polish tourism slogan. Well, it turns out that this new DOT slogan was another copy, this time from Switzerland and thanks to the Internet, I even got a copy of the black and white Swiss promo poster, “It’s more fun in Switzerland!” Isn’t this plagiarism the second time around? Surely, we should have expected something more unique from an advertising man like Sec. Jimenez.

I submit that the Swiss slogan is as old as I am... but the whole world knows that Filipinos are one of the most creative people (we have Leah Salonga, Kenneth Cobonpue and Josie Natori) and the least we taxpayers expect is to have a slogan that others would love to copy. In the end, if Malacañang insists on having this slogan, they we shall forever be known as a nation of copycats. If Sec. Jimenez cannot even be good at getting a catchy and creative slogan, what can the Tourism Industry expect from him?

At this point, it is time to ask ourselves... what was really wrong with our Wow! Philippines slogan? So we submit that we’re a 3rd world country and thus, we don’t have enough funds to waste. One of the main problems in this country is that good things never last because whenever there is a new kid on the block, you can bet that that fellow would change what the previous administration did simply because that was considered old and passé’.

If you ask me, Wow! Philippines was an enduring Tourism slogan that was well thought of and could stand on its own with Incredible India or Malaysia Truly Asia. But then if the DOT continued that path, there is no extra money to be made for those pro-P-Noy backers who supported him in the last elections who are now asking for some kind of return of investment.

Sec. Jimenez can defend this slogan all he wants, but he must listen to the critics of this slogan because that’s what advertising people do... listen to their clients in order to please them. But then, Sec. Jimenez must be thinking that it is P-Noy who is his client and not we the Filipino people.

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