Putting A Happy Face On Uncle Sam

Marketing Of Image Conflicts With Perception As Aggressor

By JOHN JURGENSEN
Courant Staff Writer

March 19, 2003

When world opinion of the United States is spelled out in anti-war rallies, terrorist threats and diplomatic defiance, it's obvious that the nation has a public relations problem.

Weeks after Sept. 11, when sympathies for the wounded superpower ran high, Charlotte Beers, an accomplished advertising executive, stepped up to help enhance America's image abroad, especially in Muslim countries. This week, with those sympathies all but evaporated, Beers is resigning as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, citing ill health.

From the start, critics pounced on the concept of marketing the U.S. image. How could brand strategies be applied to a product as complex, diverse and intangible as America?

But during Beers' tenure, the more troubling question has become: How can any message about America as a courier of democracy succeed when it conflicts with foreign perceptions of America as a self-interested aggressor?

"It would be a fundamental defiance in the logic of branding to take a brand out into the world that is in contrast to the majority of world opinion," said James MacKinnon, editor of Adbusters, an activism-oriented magazine
based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Beers, 67, had objected to the comparison of her complex task to advertising, yet the lessons of Madison Avenue clearly played a role in what her team produced.

"Shared Values," a series of short profiles of Muslim Americans, became the centerpiece of Beers' public diplomacy effort. Slightly longer than a television commercial, each is a testimonial to the religious freedom of America in the words of a baker, a teacher, a paramedic and a prominent health official.

"America is a land of opportunity, of equality. We are happy to live here as Muslims and preserve our faith," Abdul Hammuda, a bakery owner in Toledo, Ohio, says in one vignette.

Beers estimated 288 million people - throughout Africa and Asia - saw the profiles during the holy month of Ramadan. In Indonesia, they inspired a televised discussion between 50 Americans and 50 Indonesians. But other
countries, including Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, wouldn't broadcast them.

"At best they were seen as paid political advertising and at worst overt propaganda," said Nancy Snow, author of "Propaganda Inc.: Selling America's Image to the World."

"Controversy and rejection are no big deal," Beers says. "It's important to cause controversy because it's in the nature of opening doors and having discussions."

In the midst of a more intense controversy - war with Iraq - marketing of America has taken a back seat to more outright propaganda coming out of the Pentagon.

Because "Iraq is such an important world issue, the longer-term bridge-building efforts will have to hold until we reach another stage. But in the meantime, we're working furiously to have programs ready," Beers said. In waiting are other projects, including a "Sesame Street" production and a magazine aimed at Arab youths.

It's nothing new for a country to enlist public relations professionals to position it with foreign audiences. How else could El Salvador get the word out to attract investment or Vietnam to woo tourists?

But experts agree that America represents a more formidable marketing challenge. For one thing, Uncle Sam means many different things to many different people.

In a recent article in the Journal of Business Strategy, Steve Silver and Sam Hill created a "brand molecule," a spidery map of defining perceptions of America. The schematic connects far-flung concepts, from civil rights to Rambo, Colin Powell to Playboy, Las Vegas to the Statue of Liberty. Such are the messages that saturate the world by way of American media and marketing.

"It's certainly the most textured brand I'll ever meet in terms of its facets," Beers said, noting that such consumption-driven static only represents American extremes, fostering the Muslim view of ours as a decadent society. "The full face of the United States, the good, bad and ugly, was not presented."

An honest acknowledgement of the ugly, however, is exactly what was missing in Beers' approach, said Silver, a partner of Helios Consulting based in New York and Chicago.

"From the beginning, it was much too narrow to think about it as an advertising or marketing exercise," Silver said. "People are very conflicted about their feelings about America. If we want to make that connection, we can acknowledge that we're constantly striving to perfect our system. But despite our faults, we still have a lot to offer."

In other words, talk about those skeletons in the closet.

That's what Jack Leslie, chairman of Weber Shandwick , a global public relations corporation, has done with clients that come with difficult reputations. For example, to win the 2008 Olympics, Chinese officials allowed Weber Shandwick to guide spokespeople in discussing how the Olympics could help improve human rights and other issues.

"The lesson you learn when you're communicating on behalf of a government is that you have to use a holistic approach. You can't divorce the issues from the message," said Leslie, who has also helped to manage Colombia's image.

One of the marketing experts summoned by Congress after Sept. 11, Leslie recommended an engine for public diplomacy in the private sector, working outside of government channels.

Snow agrees that what's necessary is a credibility incompatible with any message from Washington. "They have to tap into the voluntary organizations and the thousands and thousands of U.S. citizens [Fulbright scholars, academics, business people] in constant contact with the world who can effectively communicate outside the bounds of government," Snow said.

Beers concurs: "I feel like my unfinished business is that the private sector has to be given a pathway to the rest of the world. There's a way for us to tap into more of that."

A second chance to sell America will be crucial at the conclusion of a war with Iraq.

"There may be some opportunities to address these foreign policies after the war, if we can make it to the other side of the equation," Silver said.

A proactive foreign policy would be the best public relations, Leslie said. "If resolution with Iraq allows us to engage again in the construction of a Palestinian state, that would do more than anything to help America's image in the Muslim world."

For any future enhancement of Uncle Sam's image, one branding professional suggests an approach seldom associated with the world's single superpower: humility.

"America needs a repositioning in the global marketplace. You have to decide what is a feasible image that would also be believable. I think there has to be some show of humility, the renewed sincerity approach," said Lynn Altman of Viverito & Altman, a New York branding firm that works with companies like McDonald's and Microsoft.

But if that strategy should fail, Altman offers a last resort for Brand America: "We could just do what [cigarette maker] Philip Morris did and change our name."
Copyright 2003, Hartford Courant