Fourteen years after banning the first Sacha Baron Cohen satire Borat, for portraying the country in a negative way, Kazakhstan has adopted the famous catchphrase used by the fictional character Borat Sagdiyev as their new tourism slogan. Read on to know what the slogan is and how the nation changed its mind. By Amitha Ameen
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Kazakhstan has released a tourism advertisement that may seem like a beautiful montage of dreamy travel footage, for those of you who haven’t seen the ‘Borat’ movies before. Those who have will immediately be able to recognise the famous catchphrase of the fictional journalist Borat — “very nice” — in several shots of the tourism video.
“It’s a place you may have heard of, that’s nicer than you ever imagined. Where people are so friendly, you might just end up at a Kazakh toi (a traditional wedding) after a few salams (hello!). How can you describe a place this surprising in just two words? As a wise man once said, ‘Very nice!’” — read a part of the description under the new tourism video.
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The government’s response is a stark contrast to how they had reacted when the first instalment was released back in 2006. The movie was banned in all the Arab countries with the government of Kazakhstan even denouncing the film. They also threatened to sue the creator Cohen and even published a four-page ad in the New York Times arguing against the film.
With the release of the new ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm‘ on Amazon Prime on October 23, the Kazakh government has decided to take an entirely different approach to handle the situation. The ad was put together by an American ex-pat living in the country who decided to use the publicity from the move for the benefit of the country’s tourism (as reported in the New York Times).
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While the new tourism ad has already been watched half a million times by people around the world, the Kazakhs are still giving mixed reactions with the release of the movie.
Related: #TNLRevisits: Travel Blogger Radhika Sharma Reveals The Hidden Gems She Discovered At The ‘Stans’
