Social Media Wars: It's more Fun in the Philippines…

Monday, 09 January 2012 00:00

Written by Aaron Benedict De Leon

A week ago, the Department of Tourism released its new tourism campaign slogan, popularly known as “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” The slogan has been met with a sense of optimism and criticism, and often, has popularly become a tone for many social networking posts, again either positive or negative.

A lot of writers and bloggers have already touched on the efficiency and the effectiveness of the new tourism slogan, and I will not make another article/post to what has already been clearly explained by many others. For one, it is tough to judge an ad that depends heavily on people’s various tastes and preferences.

It just so happens that I noticed something more glaring, something deeper than the ad or the whole tourism campaign itself. What seems to be more noticeable is the way many Filipino Social Media users behave in response to the slogan and how they associate it with the Philippines.

THE SOCIA MEDIA CAMPAIGN LANDSCAPE

Sec. Mon Jimenez emphasized that this campaign will be fueled by social media, and subsequently, by Filipino social media users. He recognizes the potential of social media, as far as promoting the country is concerned, by bringing the power of advertising the Philippines to the hands of the people. He also recognizes that by using social media as a platform for advertising, the DOT or the government will be given less control over the campaign.

And that’s where the problem lies. Too much freedom and too much space do not influence behavior. There is very little self-correction in social media sites, and it’s hard to demand social media ethics from everybody.

If we’re going to take a cue from product networking, there still has to be some filters, some guide script, some reminders. Product networking has become a successful field of work for many Filipinos, because they are ultimately given the power to make money for themselves, in their own space and time, but at the same, mechanisms for control are still in place. In this form of social media marketing, the environment becomes a free for all, where everyone can take part and participate in the process, without having to invest in credibility and credence.

On the other hand, it is a good idea to give ownership to everyone, for each Filipino Social Media user to share his uniquely different experience of the Philippines that makes it distinguishably more fun than other countries.

However, nationalism, as others presuppose it, is not built-in, in its truest sense, among some Filipinos. Yes, some would claim they are nationalistic, but often, these words do not translate to concrete courses of action.

BEHAVIOR OF FILIPINO SOCIAL MEDIA USERS TOWARDS THE TOURISM CAMPAIGN

But more than questioning the mode by which the campaign was carried about, it is more relevant to examine the way Filipino Social Media users behave in shaping the Social Media landscape for this campaign.

A site called “It’s more Fun in the Phils.” (www.itsmorefuninthephils.com), a rip-off satire (?) of the DOT’s campaign “It’s more fun in the Philippines”, reflects a pessimistic culture borne out of extreme partisanship in this country. Nevermind the slogan, the message, some people just try to find ways to make government look bad, even at the expense of picking on our own country and our own people.

What makes it worse is that some people even buy into this despicable act of cowardice and pessimism, and associate it with their hatred for government.

Let me just reiterate, for the record, that this is a Philippine Tourism Campaign, not a President Noynoy Aquino tourism campaign. Unlike any executive act, the focus of this campaign is the Philippines, not the President of this country. If we say something bad against this campaign, the President only assumes secondary responsibility because he is the head of the state. If we say something bad against the President, this usually does not trickle down to the image of the Philippines, and even if it does, the President still gets most of the image hit, rather than the country itself.

Any derogatory remark made against this campaign will not forcefully impact the President’s image, but the Philippines itself, as a country, and its inhabitants, us, Filipinos.

People who advertise the Philippines in a negative way aren’t showing us the truth or reality. They’re shoving it down other Filipinos throats that we are that kind of people, and we should project ourselves as those kinds of people. We are a pluralistic society, with multiple ethnicities, beliefs, religions and principles. If there is one thing common to the Filipino that we should project, it is that we’re hospitable, friendly and nice to visitors and tourists. Sure, there is attrition by a few of these virtues, but the few should not define who we are and what we can be to other people.

In the same fashion that they show their despise about their “so-called” truths about the Philippines, we will stand against these campaigns, and will forcefully take this down by continuously promoting our country as an archipelago of beautiful places and people.

Most Filipinos are not criminals.
Most Filipinos are not corrupt.
Most Filipinos are not ill-mannered.

Isolated cased or incidences should not speak of our race, given our long standing history of heroism and display of nationalism.

Each country has its own set of challenges and problems, but our internal problems should neither prohibit our government, nor our people, from making a pitch to the international community, and even to our own, that our country is a destination more fun like any other.

In fact, some Filipino Social Media users have already done their part in painting the Philippines as a beautiful country. And for everyone’s information, we’re not hiding anything to anyone by participating in this positive campaign. We’re merely showing to our foreign counterparts that we’re better than the negativity being broadcast over international news, and better than the negativity some of our countrymen project the Philippines to be through some social media sites.

IN RETROSPECT

True, this campaign has sparked social media controversy. Perhaps, the backlash was also anticipated. Nevertheless, with the exception of sites like http://itsmorefuninthephils.com/, the good thing about these initiatives is that we’re given the opportunity to showcase what we can to advertise our country better.

Hopefully, this social media war will intrigue foreigners to come here and experience the Philippines first-hand. At the end of the day, it is my fervent hope, that the good would still overshadow the bad, and that this campaign would eventually become a resounding success.

Indeed, Social Media Wars, it’s more fun here in the Philippines.