FOR SEVERAL years in the late 1990s, even some articulate foreigners began to see Britain as the coolest place in the world. But after eight years of Tony Blair and several clumsy wars, how does “Cool Britannia” fare now?

That we are even asking the question is a sign of the times. Since the attacks of 9/11, there has been a huge explosion of “nation branding” as governments seek to bring their countries into line with the new geopolitical scene. Somewhere deep inside labyrinthine American advertising agencies in New York, fresh-faced young graduates are plotting how to sell “Brand Saudi Arabia” or “Brand Oman”. Galvanised by the fallout from its war on terror, too, Brand America has begun to fight its corner. In 2004 alone, the Bush Administration spent $685 million (£356 million) on PR initiatives to promote the United States’ faltering image abroad.

Britain, too, is getting in on the act. Back in October 2002, Mr Blair set up something called the Public Diplomacy Strategy Board, “designed to improve the cohesion, effectiveness and impact of government efforts to promote the UK overseas”. Predictably, however, it has fallen to the ad agencies and the brand managers to do the bulk of the work. Simon Anholt, brand consultant and former adviser to the Swiss and British Governments, argues that in a global economy countries must compete not only for investment but for affection. A positive national brand image can make all the difference. When we choose French holidays over Belgian ones, German cars over Greek, or Italian opera over Spanish, says Anholt, we respond to branding messages in the same way as if we were choosing Daz over Persil.

So who wants to buy Brand Britain and why? In Anholt’s latest survey of Top Ten nation brands, published this week, Britain came a respectable second overall. The bad news is that Britain is not rated as a producer; the last of its reputation as the workshop of the world has dwindled away to nothing. Even Britain’s supposedly world-beating “creative industries” — shorthand for its advertising and design agencies — were not as well liked as those in America.

Where Britain did well, on the other hand, was as a tourist destination and as a hothouse for popular culture. The country’s chief asset and virtue, it turns out, lies in its people. Britons are deemed to be more intelligent, polite, trustworthy and honest than those elsewhere. They are also, by a long stretch, everyone’s favourite nationality to employ. Britain’s contribution to the Iraq war has not done as much damage to its international image as was feared. Even the quality of its government is well thought of.

The downside? Britons are now thought boring — even more boring than the Swedes, and quite the opposite of cool. Brand Britain is ripe for yet another makeover.

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