In 2002, many balked when President Bush appointed Charlotte Beers, ad exec and "branding queen", to improve America's image overseas. (The job has since been taken over by Karen Hughes.) But the selling of American democracy is not really new radio producer Gregory Warner charts great (and not-so-great) moments in the history of Advertising Democracy.
Follow the ups and downs of efforts to advertise the merits of democracy starting with Ben Franklin himself.
In the interactive piece, we'll investigate the new industry of nation branding. That's right. Branding. For nation states, branding is a big deal. Countries like Ireland and Estonia are spending big bucks to attract tourism, trade even allies. Help us come up with a slogan for the U.S. How would you sell America?