‘Very Nice!’: Kazakhstan embraces Borat slogan in slick tourism video
- Video features foreign tourists using catchphrase as they explore country’s landscapes, architecture and cuisine
- Idea belongs to Dennis Keen, a US citizen living in Kazakhstan, who pitched it to tourism agency
Kazakhstan banned British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s first Borat mockumentary over its portrayal of the country but is now using his “Very Nice!” catchphrase in a tourism campaign.
The misogynistic, racist and homophobic fictional reporter Borat Sagdiyev returned to screens this month in a sequel to the first Borat film released in 2006.
That film sparked outrage in Kazakhstan, which Baron Cohen said he chose as Borat’s native country because it was a place Americans knew nothing about.
But this time around, instead of shunning its moustached fictional compatriot, Kazakhstan is trying to use publicity around the movie to attract visitors.
A series of short advertisements released by its tourism agency on YouTube show visitors exploring the Central Asian nation’s landscapes, architecture and cuisine while remarking how “very nice” everything is.
“There had to be some way to take advantage of all the PR,” Dennis Keen, a US citizen behind the idea for the campaign, said.