The first time I heard about the tagline/campaign slogan Pilipinas Kay Ganda I thought it was another new noon time variety /game show from one of the biggest TV stations in the country ABS-CBN.
So, is this another show they’re gonna put up to counter the show of their declared rival host Willie Revillame who moved in to the newest booming TV station TV 5 and launched a revival of Wowowee, Willing Willie? Kudos to them.
I was dismayed to learn that its a campaign slogan for the Philippine tourism, like uhmmmm how will my non-Filipino friends ever get to understand it when they can’t hardly say Ganda the Filipino way?
“Sounds like a tongue twister to me,” a non-Pinoy friend quipped during a Facebook conversation.
To my non-Filipino readers Pilipinas is the Filipino for Philippines and Kay Ganda means so beautiful. But the proper translation of Pilipinas Kay Ganda would be Beautiful Philippines.
Wow Philippines was a really great tagline but since DOT Secretary Alberto Lim was itching to change it and pronto, Pilipinas Kay Ganda was born without giving it much thought. Maybe they were fans of the ABS CBN morning show Umagang Kay Ganda and Pilipinas Win na Win?
Common courtesy would dictate that a proper tourism slogan should be in English, unless our tourism secretary is after inviting more local tourist than foreigners?
But seriously, if they want to invite tourist in the Philippines by its selling point that its beautiful, they could have at least made it easier by saying “Beautiful Philippines” or use other words that also means beautiful like
- Gorgeous
- Magnificent
- Splendid
- Scenic
- Stunning
- Lovely
- Picturesque
I’m sure other countries haven’t used those words yet.
Take a look at the other Asian country tourism slogan:
- Incredible India
- Amazing Thailand
- Malaysia Truly Asia
- Korea Be Inspired
- Japan Endless Discovery
- Discover China
I hope our tourism secretary will be humble enough to accept that the new tourism campaign slogan he rushed to launch was a fail and that he should revert back to the old WOW Philippines (Wealth of Wonders) until he can create something outstanding.
Personally, I’d go for Gorgeous Philippines !
How about you how do you feel about the new slogan?
Stay gorgeous everyone!
4 Comments
Hi Hope!
thanks for that 😀 nobody noticed but you! changed already. I hope DOT and C&G learned their lesson.
Hi, earthlingorgeous,
Disappointing indeed. The slogan is just incomprehensible to foreigners. Name recall is very poor. Domain issue is just reckless and content was crap.
BTW, DOT Sec is ALBERTO Lim, not ALFREDO. =)
– Hope
Hello Geoff,
I think if we have dirty perverted minds we will think of prostitution immediately. I don’t like that kind of thinking that beautiful or gorgeous only refers to a woman and prostitution thats such a crap. So are you saying my blog is about prostitution now because its Earthlingorgeous? I don’t think so. If we start to tell people that its about prostitution then that is actually what they are going to think.
I didn’t like Pilipinas kay Ganda not because of prostitution but because its in Tagalog most of my foreign friends will have difficulty saying it so there isn’t a recall… I do like WOW because its short and sweet.
PLEASE I BEG TO STOP thinking of sex or prostitution when the word beautiful or gorgeous is being said because beautiful and gorgeous is such a beautiful word that doesn’t mean anything bad.
Thanks for taking time to say this but the sex mentality should stop.
I suggested gorgeous just because of my blog name and not because of any perverted thoughts.
So lahat nalang ng maganda is prostitute? Excuse me!
Hello Earthlingorgeous!
I personally do not like it to be “Gorgeous Philippines” because if you just do read between the lines, it does seem to promote “prostitution” in the Philippines of which we are already known for. The word “beautiful” can refer to a person, a place, a thing, an animal or anything unlike “gorgeous” which is widely used in describing an incredibly hot woman.
The tag line the DOT should come up should have the capability of clouding the thought that our country is one of Asia’s famous sexpots.
I personally want it to be just WOW Philippines and underneath the main tagline is “Wealth of Wonders” as what WOW stands for.