Renowned Ad Agency Apologizes For Using Misleading Footage In Tourism Video

Whoops. As it turns out, some of the clips used in a promotional tourism video for the Philippines featured false stock footage of other countries, including rice terraces in Indonesia, sand dunes in the United Arab Emirates, and an aircraft in Switzerland.

The campaign, titled Love The Philippines, was created by well-known advertising agency DDB Philippines, which has since apologized for the “unfortunate oversight.”

The organization released a statement explaining the matter soon after it went viral on social media, drawing criticism from residents of other countries that spotted local features in the clip. It appears the footage was taken from the rapid video creation tool Storyblocks.

“DDB Philippines profusely apologizes to Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco, the Department of Tourism (DOT), and the Filipino people for the apparent use of non-original/stock footage,” the statement read.

“While the use of stock footage in mood videos is standard practice in the industry, the use of foreign stock footage was an unfortunate oversight on our agency’s part,” it continued.

According to the BBC, Frasco clarified that no public funds had been used to make the video and that the department had “repeatedly sought confirmation” from the agency that the footage used in the video was original.

The official video in question has since been taken down, though it may take a little longer for the anger and embarrassment from the incident to dissipate.

[via BBC and Inquirer.Net, images via Cebu Provincial Tourism Office]