It was with great disappointment that I viewed Hong Kong's new international advertising campaign last week ('Star quality helps give Hong Kong's selling points a lift', September 16).
I was hit with multiple images of skyscrapers (photography that is not even average), forgettable music (in my opinion), extremely poor jokes featuring gamblers (apparently they are not the pariahs we have been led to believe they are), Jackie Chan sitting down (explain that one to me) - in short, nothing that could surprise or excite a potential visitor to Hong Kong.
In this commercial, where are the shots of the south stand at the Sevens, the crush at Wong Tai Sin temple at Lunar New Year, the round-the-island yacht race, golfers at Kau Sai Chau (the most stunning public golf course in the world), the sun rising over Ma On Shan, the coral at Tai Long Wan (that's Sai Kung, not Big Wave Bay), a Mass Transit Railway that you can set your clock by, and the view from the scenic lift in the Hopewell Centre?
Hasn't anybody heard of the concept of USPs (unique selling points)?
Tai chi in the park? Forget it, we get a shot of a wet market which turns out to be a ParknShop (I joke you not). Rather than images that can capture the imagination and attract Americans, Brits and Aussies (the target audience, remember?) we are subjected to more mindless 'post-Sars' drivel.
We all hear far too much about thinking 'outside of the box', but in this case, as a viewer, I would conclude that we collectively could not even knock the lid off a Salvatore Ferragamo shoebox.