Yesterday, right after the last prt.sc dinner of this year, I've ranted about how nice is the new slogan for Portugal [1], comparing the weather here to one that California has, which brings more tourism to our country. That was the major area of this promotion, the tourism and vacations.
After my post, Armando [2] showed me an article from Pedro Bidarra Vice-President of BBDO Portugal (I don't know if he still is), published on a portuguese newspaper (Público) in 2003 [3]. It's funny how he describes the promotion before the 'West Coast' as an old fashioned campaign, directed only to tourism and referring to Portugal as a surrounding European country, like if we only had hotels, coffees shops and restaurants to offer, and everyone worked here as an waitress, giving only one side of the picture and treating portuguese people as peasants. So he said that we needed to change that "filter", redefining Portugal, promoting the weather but also shifting that to technology and positioning as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Awkward do see that, three years later, the "West Coast of Europe" promotion is still focused on the tourism, still giving the image of a country full of peasants, but now with some kind of new heroes, like football players and coaches but no technology and entrepreneurs around them. [1] - http://lists.paradigma.pt/pipermail/tce/2007-December/000173.html [2] - http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/ [3] - http://bbdo.innovagency.com/bbdo_destaque_00.asp?destaque=% 7BFF62D4A1-1954-4313-BF13-F0162F7498E4%7D -- //VD _______________________________________________ tce mailing list [email protected] http://lists.paradigma.pt/mailman/listinfo/tce
