The Null Device

Sweden expands its soft power yet further, by becoming the first country with official diplomatic representation in Second Life. The Swedish embassy in the multiplayer environment won't actually issue passports or visas, but will tell people where to get them in the real world First Life, and provide information about Sweden.

(via Boing Boing) ¶ culture geopolitics politics second life soft power sweden tech virtual reality 0

Brand America update: Madison Avenue advertising/branding guru Charlotte Beers is quitting her job as the Whitehouse's image czar for selling Brand USA™ to the Islamic world, after acknowledging that "the gap between who we are and how we wish to be seen and how we are in fact seen is frighteningly wide". Her appointment is expected to be Tony Blair's spin doctor Alastair "Cool Brittannia" Campbell State Department official Patricia Harrison.

¶ marketing soft power spin usa 0

Adbusters on the apparent failure of Brand America, the Whitehouse's project to sell America™ to the Islamic world; deemphasising the liabilities (Bush, Playboy, Israel) and emphasising the big selling points (Coca-Cola, democracy and opportunity), and finally boiling down Brand USA to three themes: opportunity, democracy and freedom. Unfortunately, those damned Middle Easterners are being stubborn.

So how are sales? In January, Beers visited Egypt to start sussing out Arab opinion-makers, who, it turns out, wanted to talk about American policy. Beers and her team preferred to talk about opportunity, democracy and freedom - hold the details. "No matter how hard you try to make them understand, they don't," said one Egyptian newspaper editor in response.

(via Plastic)

¶ marketing soft power usa 3

A piece on anti-American sentiment across the world. Another one? Yes, but this one is in BusinessWeek, a publication I doubt is known for its bleeding-heart politics.

¶ anti-americanism soft power usa 0