Nation branding fiasco again - predictions

Romania is, again, running a pitch for the nation's brand. This below is a shortened version of a very pissed off article that will appear on strategic.ro (LATER EDIT: link to article)

"So every four to five years Romania decides to run a pitch for the nation's brand. It's much like sales season, it happens seasonally and you always end up disappointed. This year, however, before the actual pitch the Ministry in charge has managed to steal the limelight with another brill idea: a musical-viral-tactical initiative to be launched on May 1st. In a nutshell, before the actual pitch, they are working with a local producer - kinda like Romania's Timbaland - to produce a hymn to Romanian tourism with the tag line "land of choice".
Three things wrong with this picture:
- why is a pop music producer working on a HYMN to Romanian tourism with performers including a famous local panpipe player?
- where in the world are they going to air this? what international radio will pick it up?
- why is there a pre-pitch tag line? who will understand that the second tag line is the actual one and this one is a tactical initiative?

I also don't want to get started on the tag line itself . A while back I was writing about how futile the attempts at finding something special about Romania were and how we should stick to promoting something instead of looking for what's not there. "Land of choice" says NOTHING. It's like saying "our milk is preferred by discerning moms". Really? "Of choice "as opposed to "ignored, forgotten" or to "of nothing really"?

I still think the best solution to the nation brand conundrum is FIND A PROFESSIONAL BRANDING PARTNER and let them do their job. Oh, and BTW it's not that hard to find a professional branding partner since there are only a handful of companies with the credentials and power to sustain a project like this...

oufff