Is it Brazil, Indonesia or Switzerland? Tourism advert of Philippines uses stock footage from other countries

Officials in the Philippines were left red-faced after creators of the Southeast Asian nation's tourism promotion video were called out for using stock footage from other nations.

Advertising agency DDB Philippines issued an apology on Sunday for the “highly inappropriate” images, which included sand dunes in Brazil and rice terraces in Indonesia. The agency was involved in the production of the video for the government’s tourism campaign “Love The Philippines”, worth $880,000, which was launched on June 27.

Late on Saturday, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism announced that it was investigating the allegations against the DDB’s video which included “non-original shots”. Later, the video was removed from its Facebook page.

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A post was uploaded by famous Philippine blogger Sass Rogando Sasot on Facebook saying that various images in the campaign video were of locations present in other countries.

The fact-checking team of the news agency Agence France-Presse carried out an analysis which confirmed that the video showed places in the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Indonesia, and Switzerland.

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DDB issues an apology for the video

An apology was issued by the DDB on Sunday for using “foreign stock footage”, which it described as an “unfortunate oversight on our agency’s part”.

“Proper screening and approval processes should have been strictly followed,” said DDB, in a statement. “The use of foreign stock footage in a campaign promoting the Philippines is highly inappropriate, and contradictory to the (Department of Tourism’s) objectives,” it added. The production of the video was carried out at its own expense, said DDB.

In a statement, the tourism officials stated that they had “repeatedly sought confirmation from DDB on the originality and ownership of all materials contained in the (audiovisual presentations) and key visuals presented to the department”.

“In ALL these occasions, DDB repeatedly assured the (tourism department) that the originality and ownership of all materials are in order,” it stated. A few images, which have been used by the agency in the promotional video, can be found on the stock-footage providers' website.

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Last week speaking to local media, Tourism Minister Christina Frasco said that the new branding campaign cost around 49 million pesos ($880,000).

Frasco said that a global survey was conducted by the ministry which discovered that, in the post-pandemic era, tourists wanted “authentic interactions with communities”. Hence, the new slogan had replaced the earlier which was “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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