Tourism chief, McCann officials to review contentious Sights ad

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo on Wednesday has called for a closed-door meeting with officials of the advertising agency behind the controversial "Sights" campaign to review the ad content.

"Secretary Wanda has said she is calling McCann worldwide group to meet with the officials of DOT in charge of this material," Tourism Assistant Secretary Frederick Alegre said during the "Kapihan sa Manila Bay."

"Remember that this is the second form of four materials that we will launch this year," Alegre noted.

The closed-door meeting is scheduled at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

"We cannot say how the meeting will go, but definitely it will be for the best," Alegre said.

Flak from netizens

The DOT drew flak after the new campaign "Sights" was released on Independence Day, which supposedly bear similarities to South Africa's tourism campaign in 2014

Both campaigns featured a tourist, who is later revealed as a blind man.

Netizens branded the Philippine campaign as plagiarized version of the South African ad and took to Reddit, a social networking site, to discuss the matter.

Both the DOT and McCann Worldgroup Philippines have denied plagiarism. McCann then said it had no intention of copying the South African campaign.

Alegre earlier defended McCann, saying that despite the similarities, the ad agency was able to present the campaign in a different light.

'A beautiful story'

He reiterated that the department consulted various sectors on a concept for the campaign. Alegre said they arrived at a decision to target retirees in view of the market boom in the retirement sector.

"Since last , the DOT has been consulting many sectors ... Retirement is a booming sector. The data we have today is that we have 27,000 registered retirees residing in the Philippines from 120 countries. So, with that feedback, they (McCann) sought to talk to some people and they found this Japanese who has a defect in his eyes – he's challenged – and they had a beautiful story," Alegre said.

The ad agency presented the Tourism Department with three versions of the campaign, but the "Sights" campaign stood out, Alegre noted.

"Admittedly, we were presented three samples, this one really stuck out. We did not know that there have been previous materials similarly situated," he said.

"And now it's something that has to be reviewed. We're very sensitive to the ... reactions. We see positive, we see negative, but overall the ultimate goal really is to make us reach our 7 million. And today there will be a review of the material with no less than Secretary Wanda presiding over it," he said.

P650 million budget

The DOT supposedly inherited the P650 million contract with McCann from the previous administration. Alegre noted there two materials are still to be released this year.

"The contract of P650 million was established during the past admin. We inherited that. We just tweaked it a little. Instead of sights, we wanted to show the spirit of Filipinos. So the four materials will express that – more emotional," Alegre said.

The ad collaterals will be handled solely by McCann. "The whole campaign, including media placements," Alegre noted.

The creative portion is really a small part of the campaign, but the talent fees, and the media placements are the larger components, he added. — VDS, GMA News