Pilipinas Kay Ganda Slogan, Not So Pretty After All

The new Philippine tourism slogan Pilipinas Kay ganda (So beautiful, the Philippines), is not beautiful at all, according to most people.

The recent unveiling of this new slogan was met by a lukewarm response, to say the least. It is replacing the more familiar Wow Philippines tourism slogan by the past administration.There are two important points that were raised by its detractors. One is that the logo is a rip-off from another logo. And for another, the slogan should be in an international language, one widely used and understood by all, like English.

I have included here the much maligned logo and the "original" from which it was copied. Now, Dept of Tourism Sec. Alberto Lim said that, indeed, they looked for inspiration in other country's tourism campaigns and yes, they used the same font as the Poland logo. But no, this is not plagiarism. iIt might not be plagiarism in the strictest and legal sense of the word but I sure can't deny the unmistakable resemblance. They actually look like twins, fraternal ones!

As for the language, I thought that the Filipino, being the national language was a nice quaint touch. But I have to admit that using the national language to address an international audience for a tourism campaign is not the way to go. How will the regular tourist with no or little knowledge of the Filipino language understand it? Number one rule for any marketing campaign should be effectively addressing your consumer or audience, and this is one golden rule that the masters behind this Pilipinas Kay Ganda! slogan forgot.

I can only view this from a political standpoint. The Aquino administration is in such a hurry to distance itself from the past infamous Arroyo administration, thus making this international blunder. P-Noy, as President Noynoy Aquino prefers to be called, desperately wants to portray himself as the exact opposite of his predecessor who was known to be a vicious bitch that the masses hate. Thus the unconventional "P-Noy" and the Pilipinas Kay Ganda slogan which can be perceived as non-elitist.

But will these be enough to markedly differentiate the Aquino administration from the Arroyo administration? Or will they remain superficial and cosmetic changes that crumbles upon closer inspection?

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