Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Wow talk about bad timing (Hong Kong Tourism Slogan)

This is topic Wow talk about bad timing (Hong Kong Tourism Slogan) in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 04-11-2003, 04:51 PM:

HONG KONG WILL "TAKE YOU BREATH AWAY"

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong, a city badly hit by the deadly SARS virus that puts its victims on hospital respirators, has withdrawn its new advertising slogan: "Hong Kong will take your breath away."

Shortness of breath is a symptom of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a new disease that has killed 28 people in Hong Kong and infected nearly 1,000.

"As soon as the SARS outbreak began, we realized, obviously, it would be pretty embarrassing," Simon Clennell, assistant manager of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said on Thursday.

SARS has devastated Hong Kong's tourism, entertainment, and retail sectors.

Production lead times in magazines meant that the board was unable to remove the slogan from all advertisements published after the SARS outbreak began in mid-March, he said.

Where it could, Clennell said, the board replaced the slogan with another: "There's no place like Hong Kong."

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 04-11-2003, 07:45 PM:

"There is no place like Hong Kong"
Wow! Now I know why I could never be in the advertisement business. I could never come up with such a simple, concise and breathtakingly original slogan which at the same time tells us so much about the city.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 04-13-2003, 04:38 AM:

The hysteria over "SARS" here is unbelievable. Approx 50 people have died, so far, while the common flu kills thousands each year.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-14-2003, 03:07 AM:

Michael: It is rumoured that Churchill hated the song There'll Always Be an England, pointing out that there'll always be a Sodom and a Gomorrah too, but that doesn't mean we have to celebrate the fact.

David - couldn't agree more on the SARS hysteria. It's becoming clear that the virus doesn't spread very easily and that it only kills between 1% and 3% of those who catch it, even in third world countries.

[the following added later 'cause the 'phone started ringing before I'd finished]

Compared to thousands of other diseases, the mortality figures just are not significant. And even those don't tell the complete story. About 15 years ago I was in hospital for several months with a neurological disease called Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). At one point I was given a leaflet stating that 5-10% of the people who catch it die. This was a bit alarming - a one in ten chance of biting the dust was rather shorter odds than I would have liked. But a doctor explained to me that of that 5-10% virtually all of them had a serious, chronic, pre-existing condition, and that the GBS was the straw which broke the camel's back. For example, if you catch GBS after having had four heart attacks and intensive chemotheraphy for lung cancer, it will probably kill you. But if you catch it and there's nothing else wrong with you, it almost certainly won't. Therefore I wouldn't mind guessing that the people who have died of SARS were already pretty ill to start with, and that this increased their vulnerability to contracting the organism in the first place, and the amount of damage it was able to do once it got in.

The real reason, of course, for all the media hysteria is the desparate need for an exciting news story which does not involve Iraq.

[ 04-14-2003, 07:16 AM: Message edited by: Leo Enticknap ]