Don’t rebrand Galway – spend cash on city itself!

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

I just found out that I’m living in the ‘goodest’ (yes, unfortunately, that is the apt word in this case) country in the world! As reported by Tim Adams of The Observer, political consultant Simon Anholt has devised something called the Good Country Index, to illustrate how much each nation looks outward, fulfils its international obligations, innovates and spreads the most positivity per person around the planet.

Using the kind of database that we mere mortals might only fear, Anholt tests seven different metrics of each nation’s existence: science and technology; culture; international peace and security; world order; planet and climate; prosperity and equality; health and wellbeing.

Then he puts the seven of diamonds back on the bottom of the pack, shuffles his mum’s phone number, adds it all up, subtracts the number he first thought of and wouldn’t you know it: Ireland is ranked Number One Top of the Pops.

Not only does this country come out above all other nations, but rather surprisingly, Ireland actually comes top of the rankings in the Prosperity and Equality category, from which I conclude either that every other country must be a truly terrible place, or that Anholt has never actually been here.

The trouble with this kind of evaluation is that you bring to it research bias, in the shape of your own subjective baggage. Therefore it’s no surprise that someone who lives on the Norfolk coast will end up with 9 of his top 10 ranked countries being European, with New Zealand representing the rest of the world in a very clean, Anglicised and ecologically eager way.

What interests me more than all this collection of random right and wrong answers is the need we have to brand absolutely everything.

Back in 2005, Anholt created the Nation Brands Index, assessing how 50 countries are perceived as brands by the rest of the world. The index has now become a major influence in the realms of global tourism and academia, yet like so many others, Anholt’s studies go the long way round to telling us what we already know: Ireland is a powerful brand, seen as a benign influence upon the world.

Don’t think many of us will be surprised to hear that.

It’s strange the way that brands are these days more important than nations, more powerful than products, when you consider how they started off.

A searing hot piece of shaped metal burned onto the hide of a stock animal, a brand was nothing more than a primitive way to prove that you owned a cow.

Now it is the brands that own us. We live in a brand, eat and drink brands and socialise using all manner of other brands.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.