A boy soldier billboard campaign on our ciTy streets in anticipation of our nation's Independence Day. The big message that came across from my point of view: my country is not ambitious. Anything can be branded. If we agree on that premise, and on the basic definition of branding being the process of creating a defined image at mind level, then our national Independence Day campaign is the illustration of a country running out of intangible attributes. Try giving into the exercise of making the sum of the parts that define what my country stands for and you will face the question: is it about time our institutions started hiring brand managers. I ask.
Or maybe not.
ReplyDeleteTerritory borders are just arbitrary, and a nation does not need to have a land to exist. Lebanon, the nation, does not exist. It does not make less valid the mini-nations that are contained in Lebanon, the land. Within these nations, you will find consensus.
Imho, the problem is not that there isn't a unique vision, it is that there is a vision at all.
Maybe *not having* something to stand for is actually a step forward. Let's stop grouping and classifying people, concepts, and pieces of land, and let's embrace the real world in all its chaotic and absurd (senseless) beauty. The day we stop believing in images is the day ideologies die. This is also the day wars end.
Dear Xannax,
ReplyDeleteYou are totally right that a nation does not need physical borders to exist. Looking at our Independence Day billboard: a boy soldier conveys a sad message for a country. So a better alternative would have been not to run it in the first place - and spare us mini-nations yet another fart on our ciTy streets - in my opinion... Cheers to your mini nation, which I am particularly fond of :)