Pretoria - Government has clarified issues around this morning's media reports over the proposed new country slogan "More than you Imagine."
Media reports suggested there was a lack of originality in the proposed slogan to market South Africa as a tourism and investment destination and that the task of coming up with the slogan was part of a R140 million tender put out by the International Marketing Council (IMC).
The reports alleged that the slogan was being used by the US state of Maryland, a Scottish county and a US advertising agency campaign.
"Government is aware there has been limited use of the "More than you imagine" in some promotions and presentations, but to date no country or nation has used or registered this as a global country brand positioning line in a global campaign," the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) said in a statement.
In addition, it said it was in fact R470 000 that was spent in developing the slogan and not R140 million as stated in the media.
"The R140 million refers to the entire brand programmes, both domestic and international, of the IMC over a two-year period 2011/2012. None of this R140m has been used for the development of the country position statement."
Towards the end of 2010, the IMC presented Cabinet with a campaign slogan - More than you imagine - after a rigorous consultation and research process.
Government said together with the IMC, it was investigating the matter and will report on this in due course.
A decision was already taken to hold-off the usage of any slogan until the matter was resolved.
Newly appointed Government Spokesperson, Jimmy Manyi, said the integrity of South Africa's marketing campaign remained of the utmost importance.
