Singapore’s tourism body has confirmed that it has removed a promotional video targeting Filipino tourists after the advert went viral overnight, gaining critical panning from its online viewers.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) released a statement on Tuesday, saying that the video was “not resonating well with audiences”.

The three-minute clip shows a Filipino couple taking in the sights of Singapore, before at the end of the clip the woman hands the man a pregnancy test kit to which the man says that “Singapore always has a surprise waiting for me.”

Online commenters have labelled the video “cheesy” and “poorly-produced” with many criticising the poorly dubbed over speech throughout the clip.

STB added in its statement that when the video was initially shared on its Facebook page for the Philippines, it attracted more than 3,400 likes in its first week and got some 900 comments, which were “largely positive”.

While the video has been removed from STB’s official page, it has reappeared online gaining almost 70,000 hits in just over a week.



Following the removal of the video, STB executive director of Communications and Industry Marketing, Oliver Chong, admitted that “we could have done better.” Chong said the promotional clip was produced by a Philippine network in an attempt to lure Filipino tourists to Singapore.

STB did say in its statement that it found some of the responses and spoofs that have been shared online to be creative and clever, inviting the public to share their ideas at [email protected]