Borat: Kazakhstan adopts Sacha Baron Cohen's 'vice nice' catchphrase - NBC News

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.

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.

"When people back home talk about Kazakhstan their knowledge often starts and ends with Borat, so I think it was a missed opportunity not to capitalize on the first film," he told NBC News by telephone.

"It's a good phrase on its own because Kazakhstan is a 'very nice' country, but the fact that it has this tongue-in-cheek element that plays into the Borat catchphrase is what makes it fun.".

Despite the government's protests at the time, the first movie actually appears to have boosted tourism; visas to Kazakhstan increased tenfold, according to the AFP news agency.

The Kazakh American Association, a non-profit based in Virginia, wrote a letter last week demanding that Amazon pull the movie