An online manhunt followed after the Singapore Tourism Board today took down a video that was uploaded on March 26.
Troops from Mothership.sg, Hardware Zone and other not-yet-approved-by-MDA websites began posting links to guide netizens to find the three-minute long video.
Earlier on today (6.45 pm), the video could not be found on most links posted by Mothership.sg and keyboard warriors of Hardware Zone.
The video was scrubbed off its official digital existence by STB after many Singaporeans expressed their disdain online. They said the video has a terrible plot, poor production value and robot-like acting.
“This STB video is so bad it will go viral,” said Jonathan Lim from Mothership.sg.
“The video is cringe-worthy and full of clichéd dialogue, with the Singapore’s skyline as the only redeeming feature,” he added.
It showed a foreign couple spending their wedding anniversary in Singapore for the second time with a dozen shots of Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay and the Sentosa cable car ride.
It showed the woman surprising her husband with a gift-wrapped pregnancy kit as proof of pregnancy.
The husband, overjoyed by his new gift, said:
“I always knew Singapore have surprises waiting for me. This is the best one by far.” The video was called ‘See where the world is heading.’
The ending further drew criticism from online blog sites, like the guys behind Coconuts Singapore.
“Oh my God, a pregnancy test kit in a box? Who does that?” said the crew at Coconuts Singapore.
At 7.00 pm today, accessing the video was a game of hide-and-seek.
Many were led to these words: “This video has been removed by the user”.
But Mothership.sg came through and posted the video on their own Facebook page after. Viddme also claimed to have one of the last remaining links to the video.
On the same day the video was canned, STB also revealed it is setting aside $15 million to support popular tourist hotspots, such as Orchard Road and Little India. The scheme is aimed to build up selected areas and to drive quality growth in these spots.
Tourism revenues in Singapore inched to $23.5 billion last year from 2012’s $23 billion.