When Sacha Baron Cohen released his satirical movie Borat in 2006, the country of Kazakhstan was less than pleased with how he depicted their culture and customs. The release of the second film has seen them change their thoughts.
The Kazakhstan tourism board has hopped on the success of Borat: Subsequent Movie Film, as they will now be using the iconic ‘Very Nice!’ quote as the official slogan going forward.
This comes after the country revived an influx in tourism after the first Borat movie, according to reports from The Independent.
According to a New York Times interview with Kairiat Sadvakassov, deputy chairman of the Kazakhstan tourism board- ‘In Covid times, when tourism spending is on hold, it was good to see the country mentioned in the media. Not in the nicest way, but it’s good to be out there.’
Along with adopting a new slogan, the country’s tourism board also launched a number of new promotional videos depicting Kazakhstan’s wide variety of landscapes, local food, bustling markets and different cities, each carrying the slogan ‘Very Nice!’.
The timing of the revamped tourism campaign coincides perfectly with the release of Borat’s Sequel, ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’.
‘The slogan offers the perfect description of Kazakhstan’s vast tourism potential in a short, memorable way. Kazakhstan’s nature is very nice; its food is very nice; and its people, despite Borat’s jokes to the contrary, are some of the nicest in the world,’ said Kairat Sadvakassov, deputy chairman of Kazakh Tourism, in the release.
After Baron Cohen had heard about Kazakhstan’s updates slogan, the comedian said in a statement- ‘I chose Kazakhstan because it was a place that almost nobody in the US. knew anything about, which allowed us to create a wild, comedic, fake world. [Borat] is a comedy and the Kazakhstan in the film has nothing to do with the real country.’
Take a look at the promotional video below
Picture: Instagram
