In defense of a tagline that underwhelmed me

One of the things that turn me from a Curious Biker into a Furious Citizen is when I hear politicians open their mouths as if they know more than they really do.   Well, I am aware that they are supposed to do that, they are politicians after all. At times I suspect that they have a secret pact, like magicians do, to be as obnoxious as they can be especially when they know it's how they can get the most media mileage.

A case in point, a politician who looks like the twin brother of El Shaddai's Mike Velarde from another mother and father, has the temerity to say that "It is more fun in the Philippines," the new Department of Tourism tagline, is too long, compared to Wow Philippines!  On one hand, I admire this politico for having the skill to count words, but on the other, I am just irked at how a politician whose job it is to blabber his mouth off, can now exalt the virtues of brevity.

I am not a big fan myself of the new tagline but it is not because of its length, nor its conciseness, but because I find that it lacks a bit of oompphhh!  But having said that, making taglines is one of the most difficult jobs for an ad agency because it is supposed to capture, in a few words, the essence or promise of a product or service.  Rare is the tagline, such as Nokia's Connecting People, that really says a lot in so few words.  Just do it!, Nothing is impossible, Life's good,  -- come on, admit it, while they are practically household terms now, when you first heard them, just like It's more fun in the Philippines, they did not really pack a mean punch... at first, that is.  Then the ad agency makes its move and implements strategies that give sense, even impact and memorability to it.

A tagline, no matter how brilliant or plain, needs an effective campaign to make it successful.  And that's what these pundits are missing, they saw a tree and they're calling it a forest already.  Another politician, whose claim to fame is asserting that Erap did nothing wrong in his time at Malacanang, bluntly gives the verdict that the tagline is not ever going to attract tourists.  It is so awful that he calls the amount paid to the ad agency a complete waste of public money.  Was he talking about his pork barrel or his title as a Congressman?

The Mike Velarde look-alike even had the guts to inject his aesthetic values to the campaign's colorful banig weave logo, claiming that the colors green and blue should have been more prominent because these represent nature.  How unimaginative, and thus pitiful, this politician can be that he cannot see nature without blue and green?  Well, I suppose he has some authority on hues because he has shown the uncanny nature to change into the  dominant political color of the times, like a chameleon,  I guess that's another reason why they are called traditional politicians, they can't think outside of the small box that they have holed themselves in.

And to stress nature? In the times when nature itself is turning against us because of the undoing of so many selfish individuals, many of them politicians -- it's the kind of hypocrisy that blinds us into thinking that we still have pristine nature that is unspoilt and untouched by grimy, greedy hands.

Others do not like the tagline because they claim it is copied from a similar campaign from 1951.  I am not privy to the creative process behind the development of the tagline, but I believe in the integrity of creative people who take pride in their work.  Come on, you can never be a BBDO Guerrero -- the ad agency hired by DOT -- by being a copycat.  So I believe in Secretary Jimenez when he says it is but a coincidence.  Why, even winning jueteng combinations and lotto numbers repeat themselves from time to time.  You can claim daya, or just call it as it is -- a coincidence.

I don't know if these "experts" have the humility to admit that maybe they have said too much, too stupidly.  From the initial response of the ordinary Filipino, and this is the only reaction that matters, it's not the tagline that matters, but what you can do with it, which is a lot.  Go over the internet and social networking sites and you will see that the campaign is already flying even before the DOT has made a formal launch.

So please, for once let's be part of this campaign.  It's the least we could do for our country that is never lacking for help.  And so you would know, I am not being paid to say so much about this issue, unlike politicians who are paid millions to say so much to mean so little.



I'd like to hear what you think of this article and I would appreciate it if you could leave a comment or a reaction.  Thanks -- The Curious Biker