THE Department of Tourism will continue using its newly-unveiled Philippine brand campaign, despite allegations that the slogan was copied from a 60-year-old ad campaign in Switzerland.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. laughed off the claims and said in a text message to BusinessMirror: “The line was not chosen for originality. It is a popular expression that is TRUEST for the Philippines.” (Emphasis his.)

Less than six hours after the new slogan, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” was publicly launched Friday morning, a poster of a similar tourism campaign by the Swiss National Tourist Office done in 1951 which read, “It’s more fun in Switzerland” surfaced and spread virally on Facebook and Twitter.

Both Jimenez and BBDO Guerrero | Proximity Philippines, the advertising firm which crafted the new slogan, called it a “coincidence.”

The Swiss Embassy in Manila and the Swiss tourism office have yet to respond to inquiries from this paper regarding the authenticity of said poster.

In his press briefing on Friday, Jimenez showed translations of the slogan in various languages, and said these generated “positive reactions” from the test foreign markets.

He stressed the DOT didn’t adopt the slogan “to please a local audience. We’re doing it precisely to win business.  And therefore you do it the way the way it must be done, to gain market share.”

Also launched that day was a new logo—a colorful banig weave that forms into the map of the Philippines, the latter standing out because of its bright yellow color. Jimenez told BusinessMirror that President Benigno Aquino III gave his inputs on the colors to be used for the logo.

Along with the international campaign is a domestic campaign “#1for fun” that can be printed on posters or “stickers to be put on jeepeneys” to encourage all Filipinos to get behind the campaign and be active in promoting the country, he said.

The local slogan, because of the hashtag, also functions as a topic on Twitter, in a bid by the DOT to push the brand campaign via social media. “So the hashtag is crucial…it allows the line to multiply like a virus, and it will be easy for us to do trending,” Jimenez stressed.

His statement was prophetic. Just 30 minutes into his press briefing, #itsmorefuninthephilippines became the top trending topic on Twitter worldwide.

Explaining the concept behind the international slogan, Jimenez said what made Philippines unique as a destination was not just its historical sites, its sunsets or its beaches, but the people. “Filipinos complete the touristic experience. Tayo ang unique sa Philippines. It matters to us that the visitor has a good time…. We’re always checking, ‘are you okay?, ‘did you enjoy?’ because this is a matter of personal pride that the answer is ‘yes’. Because if the answer is ‘no’, we are personally bothered.”

Sources in the DOT who attended the pitch of the eight advertising agencies late last year for the P5.6-million “Philippine Branding Campaign focusing on Tourism” project said BBDO Guerrero’s presentation was the most applauded. “Sya yung pinalakpakan,” a source noted.

Other slogans forwarded by other advertising firms included: “Like the place, love the people. The Philippines”; “Happiness, made in the Philippines”; “Happy nation”; and “Philippines, for a knockout vacation,” just to name a few.

The DOT chief said “the other agencies made beautiful presentations” and also correctly interpreted his direction about the Filipinos making the Philippines a unique visitor experience.

But “the agency that won is the agency that came up with, to my mind, looking back on it now, is the simplest,” he intimated. “It is in fact so deceptively simple, precisely, that more traditional advertising people or marketing people will find it a little strange because it is a thought that is almost drawn from social media. That’s what it was designed to do.”

He added: “Di na kasi uso yung mga rhyming couplet, or the monosyllable one-word slogans like ‘incredible’, ‘amazing’…. This is not a game of bombast, it is a game of persuasion. And that’s what the Philippines needs. It needed something that works in the social media that will be famous but it answers the fundamental question, ‘why you? Why [should I visit] the Philippines?’”

There were seven other advertising agencies which participated in the brand campaign bid late last year.

Meanwhile the DOT chief was unperturbed by controversy over the supposed unoriginality of the ad concept, and emphasized: “Of course we will proceed with the campaign…. There will always be those who will try to punch holes in our balloon.”

Taking to Twitter after the controversy broke out, Jimenez, who tweets under the handle “MonJQuotes” said: “No one can own the expression ‘it’s more fun’ but it’s very true for the #Philippines so it becomes ours.” He added: “This Switzerland coincidence only makes our line truer. Sun Tanning IS more fun in the Philippines.” (Emphasis his)

In a separate text message, BBDO Guerrero director of marketing Ombet Traspe said of the 60-year-old Swiss ad: “I can assure that was not in our radar during the creative development stage months back. Our line is rooted on something that is true of the Filipino people. So that may just be a coincidence.”

He added: “But you can’t deny the fact that the Filipino people complete the fun experience a traveler has in our country.”

Asked if anyone on the team working on the Philippine slogan had ever seen the Swiss ad, Traspe firmly said: “We never saw that before.”

Under former Secretary Alberto Lim, the DOT launched its “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” campaign which was pilloried for using the national language and a logo allegedly copied from Poland. This led to the resignation of an undersecretary who oversaw the campaign’s creation.

The Philippines hopes to attract 12 million visitors by 2016, the end of Aquino’s term of office.