Philippine Tourism Campaign Fiasco: In Defense

After drawing so much flak on the alleged plagiarization done by the advertising agency Campaigns and Grey for the Department of Tourism creative logo design (which detractors say they copied from the Polish Tourism Ad), here is what Tourism secretary Bertie Lim said in defense:

"Lim countered that although there were similarities with Poland’s tourism motif, there were differences too.

No copyright on font

“First of all, Poland doesn’t have a copyright on the font,” he told the Inquirer by phone on Friday. “What looks very much alike is the font, but if you look at the colors, they used one color, we used several colors.”

“We have a coconut tree, they don’t. We have a tarsier, they don’t. We have ‘Kay Ganda,’ they don’t,” he pointed out." see http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20101120-304249/Tourism-chief-defends-logo-says-it-cost-nothing

Stupid.

That's the problem with this administration. They already admitted they plagiarized and they already know they committed a grave error, why not admit it publicly and say that they will do something to replace it? I mean, these people probably have so big an ego, they can't seem to accept the fact that they erred in this issue.

How in the world can we really implement a straight road policy when the very implementors of such a policy does not even know what or how straight that road should be?

Plagiarism in the Aquino Era: Tourism Secretary lacks the academic discipline

Hey, I realized that we are protesting all for nothing in this Pilipinas Kay Ganda issue. I seriously think this is all ado about nothing.


Our Supreme Court was just accused of plagiarism. Now, its the Department of Tourism. 


Flash back, and why not even include President Noynoy Aquino, who, like beleaguered US president Barack Obama, piggy backed his way to the presidency by mouthing the same old lines as what true Filipino change agents have been doing since the 70's.


Aquino stole the standard lines of dissent from true Pinoy change agents and made it his campaign slogan. The only thing that Aquino forgot to copy is their prescriptions for change, the most important thing.


Aquino is also a plagiarist. That's why Bertie Lim and Emong Romano are still there manning the Department of Tourism. Useless to demand Lim or Emong's head since Aquino will just brush that aside and tell everyone that the two still gets his "unsolicited support". As they say, it takes one plagiarist to know two (e-hek).


One of my friends say that the reason why Lim and Romano copied the Polish tourism campaign is simply, they admire Lech Walesa who once led the Polish labor movement. They think of Noynoy as somebody like Walesa, which, to my mind, is as stupid as Pilipinas Kay Ganda.


What pisses people off is, you already plagiarized, why support a poor plagiarized copy of the material? I mean, come on people! Imagine, they did not check when they upped the site that in the SEO tagging department, the very words lead to porn?


Before, the word "Pilipina" used to say "maid". Now, its triple x porn.


The most insulting thing about all of this is the very fact that we have a distinguished secretary at the helm of the Tourism department. I mean, Bertie Lim used to head the Makati Business Club which publishes quarterly research studies about the Philippines and the Philippine economy. Don't tell me that those researches were all plagiarized or were not checked or scrutinized closely by Lim?


This is very serious because it shows not just amateurism, but plain and simple stupidity and shows a lack of academic discipline on the part of our Tourism secretary.


If this kind of work passes his scrutiny and approbation, how many such idiotic decisions and departamental orders were released without the proper scrutiny and academic or research backup?


We cannot allow such things to happen especially at this department which strives to promote a good image of our country. 


This also shows lack of leadership, a leadership better than others.