"Love the Philippines" Ad Makes Waves on CNN, BBC and Others

(SPOT.ph) The use of foreign stock footage in the Department of Tourism's video for new slogan "Love the Philippines" made international news, with the likes of BBC News and CNN News covering the ad agency's apology. 

The new audiovisual presentation (AVP), which drew flak online for having used stock videos from Thailand and three other countries for a "mood video" supposedly for internal stakeholders only, was first released during the 50th anniversary of DOT and was posted on the official accounts before it was taken down. 

A day after the DOT said it would probe the incident and DBB Philippines, the agency behind the ad, apologized for the incident, the tourism department said it would start terminating its contact with the agency.

Also read: 
"Love the Philippines" and The Stock Videos Issue: Here's What Happened
Do You Remember These Department of Tourism Slogans?

How international media covered the "Love the Philippines' controversy

CNN News released at least two reports on the matter: a text article on the ad agency's apology and an "In The Spotlight" video report, which reached more than one million views.

BBC News also covered DDB Philippines' apology, adding that the campaign used videos of Indonesia's rice terraces, the sand dunes in United Arab Emirates, and an aircraft landing in Switzerland.

British online newspaper The Independent published an article titled "Philippines tourism video used pictures of ‘rice terraces in Indonesia and dunes in Brazil’."

Swiss French-language daily paper Le Matin also published an article using a report by international news agency Agence France-Presse using the headline, in English: "Images of Zurich to promote tourism... in the Philippines."

Pakistan-based English newspaper The News International also covered the issue using an AFP report, highlighting the use of "inappropriate images" in its headline.

UAE's The National also picked up the AFP report, using the sand dune screenshot as its thumbnail.

Singapore's The Straits Times, using AFP, Bloomberg and Reuters' reports, covered the DDB Philippines' apology and DOT's contract termination with the agency.

Australia's ABC News and Hong Kong's Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) also reported the incident using AFP's article.

Also read: The Philippines' Latest Ad "We Give the World Our Best" Gets Mixed Reactions

"Sobrang nakakahiya 'yung Pilipinas," said one Twitter user.

"The bar is so low," said another.

"Congrats DOT. successful launch. in less than a week, your campaign is already being shared by international news agencies. *face palm*," this Twitter user said,

"I’m proud to be Filipino. I’m ashamed of my government," said this one, with three Filipino flag emojis.