Bono’s piece on Obama re-branding America

The relationship between President Obama and Brand America’s revival is not new – we’ve touched the issue on several occasions since Brand America skyrocketed in the 2009 edition of the Nation Brands Index, the first annual Anholt/GfK country brand report since Obama’s election. In this piece, U2 leader Bono gives his insights on how Obama’s…

Wolff Olins on Brand America

Is America still the ‘New World’, or is it aging and another, fresher ‘New World’ is emerging on the other side of the Pacific? Are the values of America still alive? Does America still live up to the American spirit? Do US immigration officers deliver the real ‘Brand America’ to foreigners? Do embassies abroad convey…

False provenance – A Swedish brand playing the American card

There are many brands playing the Americana card (Gant, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger…) trying to leverage on the cool image of the US, but no one does Americana home decor like the Swedes. The Swedish brand Lexington seems to inspired by the US East Coast and specifically the Hamptons style, and everyone could bet the brand hails from…

Axis of Evil – The world’s most unwanted country brands

After former US president Bush’s withdrawal, one of the most popular concepts his Administration coined, the so-called ‘Axis of Evil’, a phrase which referred to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Cuba and North Korea, fell off grace. Now there is no ‘Axis of Evil’ any longer, but the popularity of the term has stayed. This week we’ll…

Obama re-brands America

For years, many of those who follow the nation brands phenomenon have bemoaned the loss of American credibility and subsequent brand strength in the world. There were many symptoms of Brand America’s power loss: Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Axis of Evil, Florida, Shock and Awe, Hurricane Katrina. Then along comes one guy who steps into this…

New nation branding index launched

Singapore ranked Number 1 on the first ever nation branding index to include all the countries and territories of the world, launched in Washington, DC today. The United States ranked 34. Five million mentions in 38 leading publications and other news sources in the United States and around the world were included in the analysis…

Rebrand America, says Paula Scher

World-famous designer Paula Scher has written an essay on America’s symbols on Monocle magazine. In it Scher prompts Americans, among other things, to get rid of the ‘America’ name (since when US citizens refer to themselves as ‘Americans’ exclude Canadians, Central and South Americans as non-Americans) and look for another name, to ditch the “Star…