The tourism department should have done a contest or crowdsourcing on locals for the content of the rebranded tourism campaign.
Bela Padilla expressed this in her reaction to the controversial tourism video that placed the Department of Tourism (DOT) under intense public scrutiny.
Bela shared this in a tweet on July 5. This was a week since the contentious video was unveiled.
“My two cents. (That no one’s asking for, I know.),” she said.
“If someone had released a nationwide call for locals to shoot content of what they love about our country, (all my free diving videos are taken by bangkeros with their personal GoPros that I rent for the day in the islands I go to and the quality is always superb) and offered a reward of say…P10,000 to 100 winners…the campaign would have had a genuine, heartfelt, local perspective at a fraction of the amount spent,” the actress added.
Bela further described the incident as a “wasted opportunity.”
“Dami pa sanang nabigyan ng validation…Sense of fulfilment at aminin na natin, tulong pangpinansyal,” she said.
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My two cents. (That no one’s asking for, I know.) if someone had released a nationwide call for locals to shoot content of what they love about our country (all my free diving videos are taken by bangkeros with their personal GoPros that I rent for the day in the islands I go to…
— Bela “mapanakit” Padilla (@padillabela) July 5, 2023
Bela’s tweet garnered 594,000 views, 6,158 likes, 121 quotes and 707 retweets.
DOT contracted DDB Philippines, an award-winning agency, to create and develop the paraphernalia for the rebranding of the tourism campaign.
The rebranded campaign is “Love the Philippines,” replacing the previous “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tourism slogan.
RELATED: Yay or nay?: Social media weigh in on ‘Love the Philippines’ new tourism campaign
Days after the launch of the new campaign video, however, some Filipinos quickly called it out for the use of stock video clips featuring tourist destinations from other countries.
The video clips were lifted from Storyblocks, a subscription-based stock footage website.
READ: Issues hounding DOT’s ‘Love the Philippines’ tourism video earn global attention
This incident also landed in international news.
DOT on July 4 announced that it ended its contract with DDB Philippines following the fiasco.
