WHAT do you do when you're a Japanese housewife denied of a holiday in Singapore?

You invite the Merlion over for tea, at hubby's behest — and watch as he changes his mind after getting copiously drenched by the statue's spray.

So goes the quirky advertisement for the Japanese airline ANA, which has been getting lots of praise by local netizens of late.

Since being discovered a few months ago, the advertisement has gone viral on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, with many commenting on its wit.

Some have also been wondering why Singapore couldn't produce something equally stylish and memorable.

A friend posted the video on his blog with the succinct comment: "Everything the STB's Uniquely Singapore ad campaign should have been."

After a quick search on Youtube for recent Singapore Tourism Board adverts, I couldn't help but agree with that remark.

The clips I've unearthed so far tend to show Singapore as a wondrous exotic melting pot of the East. Cue pan-Asian flutey-tabla music, shots of bustling Little India stalls and closeups of Chinese opera singers.

Fair enough, but isn't that a little too similar to Malaysia's "Truly Asia" multicultural sales pitch?

Plus, the marketing of Singapura Exotica is not only getting a bit old, but also smacks of a colonial hangover.

There have also been a few commercials that attempt to be stylish: all I can say is, close but no cigar.

There's the slightly schizophrenic one replete with the jump cuts and out-of-focus shots favoured by the generation brought up on MTV. Yes, it's so hip it hurts — to watch.

Then there's the one with the teh tarik visual pun — cleverer and more watchable, but hardly pushing the envelope.

Nope, my favourite Singaporean tourism advertisement so far is still the ANA clip. It wins with its brevity, punchy edginess, and memorability. I hope the tourism board will learn a thing or two from it.

After all, isn't it ironic that another country does a better job of selling Singapore?