SOMEONE ELSES WINDOWS: Frascos fiasco

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 8 July) — Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco must be thinking that the issue concerning the use of foreign footage for the country’s tourism promotional video ended after her agency announced that it had terminated the services of DDB, the ad agency that produced the fraudulent material.

Frasco was quick to shun accountability by making the DDB take all the blame. She would want no part in the shameful mess that didn’t escape the attention of foreign news outfits. Yet, the campaign ad would not have seen the light of day without her approval as secretary, right?

Maybe the controversy would have died, except that she insisted on using the slogan “Love the Philippines.” This raises questions on the circumstances surrounding the production of the video and the real terms of the contract between the Department of Tourism and DDB.

The insistence on using the slogan, which has become a butt of jokes, raises suspicions that a huge amount of money was paid to DDB as consultant for coming up with it. Is it true that P250 million was the contract price with the ad firm for a slogan that was merely copied from other countries? That’s a lot of taxpayer’s money wasted on mediocrity and fraud.

Goodness, for a much lower amount, the DOT could have tapped a pool of writers who have more imagination, creativity, and good sense.

By the way, where’s the presidential adviser on creative communications?

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com.)

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