*official owen's message to the Department of Tourism

Oh you have got to be kidding me.

 

This is the final artwork that made it to print? 

COME. ON.

I produced better output the last time I joined an on-the-spot drawing contest. IN MY HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE YEAR. 

We are supposedly a hotbed of artistic talent. We even sent a couple of natives, now national heroes, to art schools in Europe eons ago. Our advertising creative directors are pirated by the biggest agencies in other Asian countries--we make their own vision understandable for their own markets. Flip a page of a decent fashion magazine and you'll realize, sans merchandise price points, that our layout and typography is at par and sometimes better than what publishing houses in the UK and US deliver to the stands.

Fine Arts and design graduates have taken upon themselves the unofficial task of rebranding this country minus spine-tingling and hair-raising  visions of the Bahay Kubo set against sunsets and meadows. Heard of Team Manila? In case you haven't, they've singlehandedly made national pride a cool manner of self-expression. They've even mentioned in the past how they've been itching to revamp the NAIA terminals. After all, the airport is a tourist's first physical encounter with a country. Do you even know that?

Your work would've been groundbreaking had it been 1994. But 1994 was almost twenty years ago and the font family you took those letters from has probably been rubbed out. Ever heard of Helvetica. I have a documentary DVD dedicated to that font and the power it has over the fields of history and commerce. Perhaps I can stage a mini film viewing for you.

And that campaign jingle. You must not have set foot on Saguijo or The Collective yet. Or God forbid, Cubao X. Do you not know how much emerging musicians there are in those grounds? I'd be offended if I were Ryan Cayabyab. I wouldn't want my Metropop masterpiece to be massacred in Carlo J. Caparas fashion. I'd cover my ears in dismay if I were Hajji Alejandro. It would be a shame to hear my signature song altered like that. I'd rather hear it again in an awards show. 

Are you unaware of the power of social media? Of bloggers and alleged social climbers that do more than elbow rubbing with world figures and whose written work - no matter how Strunk and White would disagree - actually have a pull with local readers who would rather scroll up and down Google Reader than care about your tacky visuals? Try Anna Wintour's Fashion Week seatmate Bryanboy, whose H&M podcasts are more tolerable than this YouTube video of your dreary brand launch. You could have asked him to ask Marc Jacobs to name a bag after this country - only to be sold in Marc Jacobs stores in Greenbelt. That would have sent the global fashion community and foreign lifestyle press packing their Rimowas for at least a day at our local mall, and a night on the town.

 

Don't you dare tell me about budget constraints. If we could afford to have first grade students learn math inside perennially flooded classrooms, we could have written a check for someone whose work can send a battalion of international missionaries to our depressed areas. Hell, you could have grabbed a decent graphic designer by the balls and have him render one study after another on the sole promise of worldwide acclaim. Ex-deal unnecessary. You could have eavesdropped on happy hour conversations of advertising folk in small, stealth pubs in Salcedo Village and struck gold out of their brain farts. Best of all, you could have made a mad dash to my office at the corner of Ayala and Buendia and demanded me for at least fifteen sample slogans. I would have obliged to the tune of Iced Venti 3-Splenda Americano.

All in all, it was easy to have come up with a smart, spanking, sublime campaign for this country, dear Department of Tourism.

So why then are you stamping this loser of a campaign on our foreheads?

I'd rather watch those old PAL ad campaigns from the 80s. I can live with the cobra hair.

Comments

[Jack Peñaflor]

In short... "FANET"

[Orly Agawin]

it looks more like an Islands Souvenir design than a national brand. Nakakalungkot. I know where you're coming from O.

[officialowen]

dammit we are living in post-islands souvenir philippines. nakakahiya. this country is colorful enough. they should have done something more updated. and the slogan. god.

[FlipnFreelance]

This is embarrassing. Considering na ang sinundan niya, ay ang heavily lauded, brilliantly executed--but also budget severely strapped--WOW Philippines: More Than The Usual campaign.

And what kind of message are we sending with half-naked girls doing a really bad hip-hop rendition of a timeless and beautiful song? We have a problem with human trafficking and prostitution! Proliferated by foreigners! Argh!

San ba may petition? Puwede ba mag-ambagan na lang tayong lahat para mag create ng bagong campaign?

[officialowen]

i will do it for coffee. wag lang tayo mapahiya.

[Janlo]

HI Owen because of your post, you've inspired some people to come up with this: http://www.facebook.com/DOT.DIY?v=app_4949752878#!/DOT.DIY Please check the link. :)

[officialowen]

lezdoodiss!

[Reijiro Sato]

HAHAHAH. Just finally got to read all of it! :D I also have my official logo as my facebook picture now. Reijiro Kay Ganda! :D

[B'ley]

I feel you Owen.

That cartoon image of the Tarsier seems to be humping the letter "i". Very disturbing.