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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
