Living up to the brand

I read with interest the correspondence by Robert Sant Fournier (September 2) illustrating how a fictional name such as the Maltese Falcon has become a household name and created so much publicity for Malta worldwide. I am quite sure that there are a lot of Americans who have not heard of Malta, but have surely heard of the Maltese Falcon.

In the early 1980s a little known model called Lorraine Chase. who has since become a popular TV actress, made an advert for Campari which put Luton Airport on the map worldwide. The advert related to a sophisticated man making eyes at this gorgeous looking model and when he asked which heaven she came from, she exclaimed in a heavy local dialect: "No, Luton Airport". Every impersonator on TV made fun of the way she uttered the words and Luton Airport never looked back as it gained so much free publicity. The words Luton Airport then became a household name.

The advert for Brand Malta is extremely good; it highlights three basic and much required promises in the hospitality industry and again the Maltese Cross is recognised and respected worldwide.

However, I dare to suggest that the CNN advert should be placed in the MTA archives and shown in 20 years' time, by which time we hope to have a clean and functional infrastructure to complement some of the excellent hotel resorts. When you advertise any product, you must first make sure that can you deliver the product in line with the perception that you created and this advert fails to portray what product Malta is today.