"Borat: Kazakhstan adopts Sacha Baron Cohen's 'very nice' catchphrase"

quote When the first "Borat" movie came out in 2006, Kazakhstan reacted by banning the film, threatening to sue its creator, Sacha Baron Cohen, and buying a four-page ad in American newspapers packed with positive stories about the Central Asian country. What a difference 14 years makes. After the sequel, "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm," was released last week, the Kazakh tourist board adopted one of the character's well-worn sayings, "Very nice!" as one of its own slogans. In a series of 12-second, social media-friendly clips, one visitor is seen climbing through a stunning mountain range, another drinks Kazakh fermented tea, and a third admires one of the country's modern skylines — all exclaiming: "Very nice!" The strategy is a headline-grabbing piece of PR at a time when global tourism has been strangled by Covid-19. But leaning into Borat's world is a left-field move given that the films depict this predominantly Muslim, ex-Soviet republic of 18 million people as a backward land populated by misogynists and anti-Semites. The idea was the brainchild of an American named Dennis Keen, a Los Angeles native who in 2013 moved to Kazakhstan where he now runs the tour company Walking Almaty. . . .

Alexander Smith for NBC News; October 27, 2020.
https://www.nbcnews.com/new...catchphrase-n1244895

Sounds like good news to me. Although the remainder of the report describes how invested some people are in the Borat films, in regarding the films as more than mere comedy.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 10-27-2020).]

I thought the new one was hysterical. As a Holocaust scholar, there were one or two ouchy items but I loved how they put FB on blast related to Holocaust denial.

~ Jen

I doubt this went over well in or make benefit for Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan....

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 10-28-2020).]

Didn't watch the first one, probably wont watch the second one.