New “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” DOT slogan becomes popular online

Posted on January 9th, 2012. Written by Rico.

Over the weekend, many Filipinos online rallied behind the new Department of Tourism slogan, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”. It was a welcome change from the controversy generated by the infamous “Pilipinas Kay Ganda“.

“It’s More Fun in the Philippines” was launched last Friday by the government agency. Unlike Pilipinas Kay Ganda, the new slogan appeases language-conscious critics with its use of English, and let’s anyone put their own spin to it (The basic formula: Get an image, then use the words “[Insert noun or verb here]. (It’s) More Fun in the Philippines.”).

The new slogan’s variable nature has worked to its advantage, because even sarcastic uses of “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” increase the visibility of the new campaign. That’s why you have hundreds of tweets containing the “#ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines” hashtag as of this writing. Through last Saturday and Sunday local netizens engaged in an informal contest of one-upmanship, as people searched through their photo libraries and wracked their brains in an attempt to come up with wittiest “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” image. That’s why we have NSFW work like this:

(From @SuperGirL6278)

…Images that use famous Pinoy tourist attractions like our oceans:

(From @rjnworks)

…Contributions from people like frequent diver and blogging superstar Jayvee Fernandez, who has written a step-by-step guide on creating your own #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines images:

…And loads others. The fact that the link leads to a Google Image search full of “…More Fun in the Philippines” pictures is a sign that the local online community has embraced the phrase. Even as critics accuse the DOT of plagiarizing an old Swiss tourism campaign used during the 1950s, the new campaign shows no signs of slowing down, thanks to websites like itsmorefuninthephilippinespics.com and morefunmaker.com.