Indonesia’s new campaign to attract tourism has generated a slogan with a grammatical mistake, Indonesian officials acknowledged recently. “‘Visit Indonesia 2008. Celebrating 100 Years of Nation’s Awakening’ has been printed on billboards, government Web sites and emblazoned on the sides of aircraft belonging to the national carrier, Garuda” according to an AP story. Officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that the word “Nation’s” would be replaced with “National” in the new slogan.
The campaign, which cost the government roughly US$96,000, has drawn criticism for other reasons as well. Critics say that tourists are unlikely to be lured by an ad campaign touting an anniversary that even many Indonesians don’t know about– the 1908 formation of Boedi Oetomo, or “Noble Endeavor,” Indonesia’s first nationalist group.
I thought that was common knowledge– apparently not.