Albay 2nd district Representative Joey Salceda criticized the creators of the “Love the Philippines” promotional video following an admission by the advertising agency DDB Philippines that stock videos were used in the campaign video released by the Department of Tourism on June 27.

Expressing his disappointment, Salceda referred to the creators’ work as “trabahong tamad” or a lazy job. Initially, he raised concerns about the omission of the Mayon Volcano from the video.

“The whole mess with the contractor using stock footage in the promotional video proves my earliest point about the DOT (Department of Tourism) either apologizing to Albay or firing the consultant,” Salceda said on Sunday.

“Clearly, the exclusion of Mayon and other tourist attractions intrinsic to the Philippine brand was just a symptom of ‘trabahong tamad’ that is now evident to everyone,” he added.

DDB Philippines, the advertising firm behind the “Love the Philippines” campaign, admitted to using stock videos as a “mood video” intended “to excite internal stakeholders about the campaign.” The stock footage utilized in the campaign was sourced from the rapid video creation platform Storyblocks, featuring footage from Indonesia, Thailand, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

However, Salceda strongly disagrees with the use of stock videos to establish a mood for a new tourism campaign. He describes it as an act of plagiarism.

“For something as critical as an entire country’s image, you don’t ‘set the mood’ with plagiarism,” the Albay representative said.

Salceda’s viewpoint regarding the “Love the Philippines” slogan, which replaced the widely acclaimed catchphrase “It’s more fun in the Philippines,” is that the final evaluation of its effectiveness is still pending.

“As for the branding itself, the slogan is a creative decision best left to experts, and its usefulness will be proven ultimately in tourist numbers. We will know soon enough if it works. So, I don’t want to comment on it. But the way the slogan was launched by this contractor — my goodness,” he added.

Photo: Rep. Joey Salceda FB