Reviewing tourism TVCs, More fun in the Philippines

Is it crab mentality or did the TVC fall short of delivering the goods? Last April 30, the Department of Tourism unveiled its two TV commercials – the 30-seconder Meme TVC and the 15-seconder Tarsier TVC—to the mixed reactions of Filipino netizens, myself included. I remember eagerly clicking the YouTube link, satisfied that my trusty Internet connection was quickly highlighting the gray bar with the red. I watched the TVCs one, two, three times. My kneejerk reaction was, “this is it?,” a reaction which, I later found out, I shared with other people as well. I didn’t dislike it, but I wasn’t raving about it. I liked it enough, but I didn’t like it a lot. It was a feeling of discontent I tried shaking off. Later, this was followed by anxiety as I browsed through the comments and felt fingers pointed at me for being a “negatron,” a mash-up of the word “negative” and the Transformers character. Was I transforming into something else, growing claws in my hands and pulling the campaign efforts back into a pot of boiling water? Being a TV producer myself, was I exuding arrogance and assuming I could’ve done better? Or perhaps, being aware of Filipinos’ creative competence, I knew that we could have indeed done better. I say “we” because no matter the divisiveness on whether or not it was a good video, this is still “our” campaign. Risking the chance of stones being hurled at me, I believe the TVCs had their share of hits and misses. And yes, at the end of the day, even writing a critique can be more fun in the Philippines. Great campaign, not so great video These were the givens: we are not rich, but we sure are one of the most active and prolific social media users in the world. Capitalizing on these factors, the campaign by itself is a stroke of genius. After BBDO-Guerrero produced two it’smorefuninthephilippines materials, around 12,000 memes followed. In this day and age, people are skipping the traditional media route and going viral instead. The campaign was an attempt to go viral and it did. #1forfun trended worldwide and Filipinos, even some foreigners, joined in the crowdsourcing. People did provide reasons (creative ones at that) on why it was more fun in the Philippines. And this was translated well in the TVC. It was fun, upbeat and witty at best. It was a great campaign. But a tourism TVC is another thing. The message Yes, the message is simple enough as it dares other people to come up with their own memes. But the point of any tourism video is to invite foreigners to come and visit the country it is promoting. The pictures and videos in the TVC were creative, but were they inviting? If I were to imagine myself as a Westerner, I would want to be amazed and captivated with color, culture, food, movement and music. I would want to be lured and feel the unique Filipino spirit and identity, besides having more fun. The Malaysian and Indian videos The picture montage of the crowd-sourced memes pales in comparison with the tourism videos of Malaysia and India. Malaysia banked on its being a melting pot of races and religions, branding itself as “Truly Asia.” By featuring a Western man and woman having “the best time of their lives” in Malaysia, it was a bit of a hard-sell. But then again, it is a tourism video and if showing the “target market” in the video will do the trick, then why not? Malaysia is actually doing pretty well, owning 12.1 percent of Asia Pacific’s International tourist arrivals. “Incredible India,” on the other hand, is a narrative about an Indian guy who is writing on a postcard. Presumably, he is half-Indian and is rediscovering his roots in his hometown. I watched the TVC one, two, three times and though I do not like Indian food very much, the TVC convinced me India was incredible indeed. As I write this, I am seriously thinking of visiting India someday soon. Message delivered. The video worked. Medium is the message Renowned communication scholar Marshall McLuhan said “the medium is the message.” In the case of the DOT TVC, perhaps the message got lost somewhere in the medium. Perhaps, it was too much amusement in crowdsourcing that did it. Nowadays, brands do create viral videos as support to their campaigns, while also having separate TV commercials. I think of the DOT TVCs as excellent viral videos, but as tourism commercials, crab mentality aside, they fell short of delivering the goods. But let’s see, shall we? BBDO-Guerrero and Department of Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez said there are more to come. Let’s hope for something better. — KG, GMA News Alina R. Co writes features, produces TV segments and voices commercials for a living. She is currently finishing her masteral degree in Ateneo de Manila University, solving communication curiosities and dilemmas. Her favorite theory is symbolic interactionism.