Tacloban City’s 'Home of the Happiest People' tourism campaign is a cover up of five years of devastation in a disaster-stricken city.
showcasing Tacloban’s scenic landscapes, posh hotels and smiling people. Set to inspirational and upbeat music, the 6-minute video follows Tacloban Mayor Cristina Gonzalez Romualdez as she delivers short catchphrases for why you should visit the city.
“You’ll like the sceneries. You’ll love the gentle smiles,” she says, as the camera zooms to cheerful locals.
We find this campaign as a case of “happy-washing.”
Just like green-washing which puts a spin on a company’s environmental track record, happy-washing obscures desperate realities on the ground. This strategy, we argue, is problematic for three reasons: 1) it erases and re-writes Tacloban’s collective narrative of resilience and survival; 2) it dilutes the fierce Waray identity, and most importantly, 3) it silences the survivors who were pushed out into resettlement sites and covers up their enduring needs.
Re-writing Tacloban’s Story of Survival
