DOT ends contract with ad firm McCann over ‘Experience the PHL’ mess

The Department of Tourism has cancelled McCann Worldwide's contract following the controversy over the Experience the Philippines tourism campaign, DOT officials announced on Thursday.

The DOT admitted that they saw very glaring similarities between "Sights," which was produced by McCann, and the one released for South Africa in 2014.

Both ads featured a tourist who turned out to be blind.

After the ad's release on Monday, netizens immediately took to reddit and noted that the Philippine campaign was a “copycat” of the South Africa ad.

Frederick Alegre, Tourism Assistant Secretary, said that they are exploring all legal remedies that will be discussed with the professional team of McCann.

“We have the interests of the people that we have to protect. Secretary Wanda Teo has the duty to protect the interests of the department and the Filipino people. That is why this is the direction we have decided to take,” he said.

"We are asking for McCann to issue a public apology regarding this eventuality," added Reynaldo Ching, who is from DOT's legal team.

The department is now accepting new bidders for a new and original ad campaign.

“During the early stages of the bidding, a condition is set by DOT to the bidders to come up with a campaign na dapat original, hindi tayo dapat nanggagaya.”

"Sights" is the second of the four-part release that the DOT and McCann planned to put out this year.

The DOT said it will still try to release the third PVC by the third quarter of this year, but this time, with new terms of reference for the bidding process.

The DOT added that there is still enough budget for their new advertising materials. “There is enough budget for more materials, so we're still within budget. Hopefully, whatever we do in the future, it will come from another budget, but it's still part of the “It's More Fun in the Philippines” campaign.”

Read DOT's statement below:

MEDIA RELEASE: 15 June 2017 pic.twitter.com/2ARGpvLLKP

— Visit Philippines (@TourismPHL) June 15, 2017

—NB, GMA News