Friday 9 May 2008

Rebranding the UK ?

A new tourist guide to the UK has been produced, and it includes some surprising (perhaps) descriptions of the country and its population.

The BBC ARTICLE includes some extracts from the updated ROUGH GUIDE.

What image does this give of ENGLAND.

Some amusing HAVE YOUR SAY comments already available.
What do you think about these examples from the HAVE YOUR SAY section...
Which one would you MOST or LEAST agree with ?

1. Bacon butties, Sunday roast and chicken tikka massala

2. They missed out, uncouth, uncivil, uneducated, unmannered & prone to mindless street violence prefaced by the words "Wot you lookin at!!" I'd say that most of the world see's us like this, not the 'civilised islands of culture' that the BBC, and this Government like to portray as "This England" whilst happily lowering standards in all walks of life in the name of equality!

3. I think they have it pretty sussed, people buy all these trashy z list celeb mags why ill never know. they are a total waste of trees. People cant go out for a couple of drinks and act normally people just go out to get drunk because their lives are so sad and pathetic. Great britain certainly isnt great any longer

4. For all our overweight, binge-drinking, celebrity-obsessed TV addicts this is still the greatest country on earth. The people are second to none and sure we might not all agree on everything but they`re OUR people to fight with and nobody elses. And watch us all pull together in a crisis. What we have is unique in the world, heritage, history, the london taxi cab, the monarchy, the country pub, amazing countryside, bluebells, morris dancers, the list goes on. Be proud of who and what you are.

5. It describes a minority, the sort they love to parade on TV as though they are typical of society and if you're any different you're tragically old-fashioned.It doesn't describe the majority, who are still hard-working, decent, quiet people - you just don't hear about them, and they assist by not being natural attention-seekers.All nations have both types, it's not unique to England. This is just a cheap publicity stunt for the book. It won't make me feel ashamed to be English.



From time to time, areas of the UK are rebranded.

This is in reponse to a perceived need to change the 'image' that people have of particular areas.
While in Sheffield last week, I noticed that the city had been temporarily branded as "SNOOKER CITY" while the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS were in the city, at the Crucible theatre. Took me back to my mispent youth in Rotherham Snooker Club. I remember getting the bus down with my cue in 1980, when the coverage of the final was interrupted by the Iranian Embassy siege.



Does anyone have any other examples of rebranding of cities, counties or regions ?

1 comment:

Tommy said...

The UK government with the aid of Tesco are re-branding England as Britain, You can buy Scottish goods with Scottish flags, Welsh goods with Welsh flags, but when a blogger (http://wakinghereward.blogspot.com/2008/10/fear-and-loathing-of-england-at-tesco.html) complained that some English produce had British flags instead of the St George Cross, Tesco responded by saying that this was confusing, so they would put British flags on ALL English produce.