Philippines fires top advertising agency after being ridiculed for its ‘copycat’ tourism campaign
The ad showed an elderly tourist enjoying his trip to the Philippines and ends with him whipping out a blind man’s walking stick – uncannily similar to a campaign promoting South Africa
The Philippines has fired one of the world’s top advertising firms in a row over alleged plagiarism, adding more misery to its tourism industry already reeling from a war with Islamist militants and a deadly crackdown on drugs.
The tourism department on Thursday cancelled its contract with McCann Worldgroup Philippines and demanded an apology, after deeming its just launched promotion for the Southeast Asian nation was too similar to a 2014 South African campaign.
“It is not right that we will be paying for something delivered to us which is fraught with accusations of being a copycat version,” assistant tourism secretary Reynaldo Ching told reporters.
It is not right that we will be paying for something delivered to us which is fraught with accusations of being a copycat version
The ad showed an elderly tourist enjoying his trip to the Philippines and ends with him whipping out a blind man’s walking stick. It was ridiculed in social media for what netizens described as its uncanny similarity to the “Rediscover South Africa” ad.
“While we regret the decision of the [ministry] to discontinue our partnership, we continue to believe that it is in the best interest of all parties to discuss a sensible resolution to this matter,” a McCann statement said on Friday.
McCann, part of the US global ad giant Interpublic Group, had issued another statement earlier in the week saying it stood by the integrity of the campaign.
“We also underscore that there has never been any intention to copy others’ creative work,” it said.