Brand Brexit Britain: How to sell the UK after the EU

Forget the gloomy predictions, the talk of cliff edges and lonely isolation. If you wanted to sell a more positive image of post-Brexit Britain, you'd call in the experts. So we've been to talk to some of the top advertising gurus in the country to ask how they'd sell Britain to the world after the political crisis has finally passed. Is there a common vision of the UK that both sides can rally behind?

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[jtbfii]

How about this idea?
"Britain: We're Only Half Stupid"

[NaiiFluur]

I was an enthusiastic anglophile. I was intrigued with british TV, music, literature and for a short time I even had the union jack hanging in my room. Then came Brexit. I still like british culture but I also developed a critical distance to the UK. The self-image, the politics, attitude and relationship to continental Europe are all a bit distorted.

[SilverStarEyes]

Utterly shameful, makes me want to leave the UK and change nationality

[iccoldmilk]

Brexit is good for Brits. Finally politicians will need to take the blame for problems in GB and dont push the blame on EU.

[rjkmusicmedia]

Those marketers are scarily cringe-worthy an not worthy of showing off the UK

[scotchorouleau]

I think what’s happening is the japanification of Britain. Nothing wrong with Japan. In fact, they are a great country. Like Britain, they are an island just offshore a continent. But they’re inward looking, because they realized they could not conquer Asia. Britain will never get its Empire back, and so now it is time for Britain to look inward, like japan. But I don’t see this as a loss. Japan has the fourth largest economy in the world, Britain the fifth.

[dawidwyborski]

Modern diverse progresive England. Sometimes you feel that you want to vomit in this sick country. Progress is a regress.

[dominicfastbender]

Ozwald Boateng's comment that things were working for Britain before the vote is nonsense. In fact, 65% of Global HQs left London in the 10 year period before 2016. Since the Eurocrisis, things have got much worse. Many corporations have spent the last 10 years restructuring EU wide operations to try and reduce exposure to Eurozone and political risk. Things have only got worse as more and more ideologically led and often massively misguided legislation comes from the EU. Article 11 and 13 being perfect example. In at least one case I know well. The company held off on cutting back in the UK precisely because of Brexit. They were in talks with the UK concerning 2 new fascilities when Britain came out of the common market. Unfortunately, it looks like they wasted their time. Now the existing folks are at risk once again. Just when we needed a leader with vision. We got Theresa May. An institutionalised automaton more suited to being a civil service administrator.

[thebatridesagain]

I refuse to believe that 52% of the nation are racist. The flag is not a racist symbol, it's flag to be proud of.

[BigJProductions]

Britain is an island in the sea where people live! That's all it needs to be. We don't have to live our lives as a business!

[JohnDHarnett]

5.13 Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, wrote the first http/html spec. He didn't invent the internet....

[honved]

Megan Markle is American isn't she?

[findingstyle]

and that last business man at the end is selling snake oil

[jameswhiteley]

92% of UK businesses do NOT trade with the EU at all. This 92% accounts for 87% of the UK economy. This country will survive and later thrive under a WTO system. All the EU seeks to accomplish is to turn the UK into a mere region of a federal Europe. We are told by hardcore federalists that a 'United States of Europe' will be like America, I think it'll be more like the USSR. Just to add, a lot of people died in the process of creating the USA. Check out what Vladimir Bukovsky has to say about the formation of the European Union and its similarities to the USSR.

According to the World Bank, the PM of Singapore said that Singapore would morph its EU free trade and investment deal into an identical one with the UK, immediately after we exit the EU. This means other countries can follow suit and reach a deal with the UK in a short period of time. Where there is demand for goods, there is a market. China, the US, Brazil, India, Australia all want free-trade agreements with the UK.

[nicwhite]

America is nearly as much of a service based economy as we are. We sell financial services, technology, pharmaceuticals, oil, aerospace technology and much more. London also has more tourists than any other country in Europe and is ranked second in the world after Bangkok. In fact, 92% of our businesses do not trade with the EU and they make up 87% of the UK economy.

[angryjack]

This coment section seems to be rather unnecessarily pesimistic. There are a lot of misconsceptions i believe about in what state the UK is and will be in. Economically speaking the pound has stabilised, unemployment is lower, the economy is growing faster than the eurozone, it could be better but we are OK, just to be mean Im going to say that the german economy shrank ever so slightly last month although this is normal, it will probaly pick up again.

There is great young new talent comming out of the UK just to name a few: ed sheeran, benedict cumberbatch, james mcavoy, james bay ...(this selection is largely subjective). I think if it not for the apocalyptic view of both sides this would be just another borring political issue. I dont think people really believe that Britain is rascist and dangerous and so is the flag. UK and EU will probaly both be fine, and hopefully and i think probably stay very close, yet separate.

I think this whole Brexit thing is a good thing, the UK was allways slowing down the EU from centralising and the EU has allways stoped the UK from pursuing its own global ambition. As in any divorce its ugly but then it gets better. But hey wtf do i know?

[janekd]

A campaign built on nostalgia and past achievements won't work. The fundamental problem with UK is that it doesn't have much in terms of economic engines engaged in deliverying everyday products and solutions to be sold outside of the UK and delivering employment to the residents of the country. Please bear with me before you say I'm wrong. There's industry and exports, of course, but from what I'm seeing it's either higher-end goods and services (luxury cars, high quality clothing, dyson products) or very advanced products that require very high quality control and manufacturing efficiency (pharma, ARM) and as such won't employ hundreds of thousands of British.
UK doesn't make much that can't be made cheaper and with the same quality elsewhere.
I recently watched a show called "Made in Britain". There were some great products there, but majority of the companies shown were relying on old machines, manual labor and tradition.
There aren't that many customers in the world for "bespoke" and "hand-crafted stuff" to make it possible for UK to make a living off it. Especially with limited access to export markets.

[monsieurbarre]

I think the UK will struggle unless it pauses, think about what went wrong, and act upon it. Brexiteers have insulted their 450 million closest customers. The brand won't fix itself easily unless those responsible for the heartache are made accountable.

[mactek]

Londoners are very full of themselves. The reality is the rest of the country has had enough of the EU influence in the country. They saw none of the benefit and all of the harm.

[bosoerjadi]

Swag cannot start without honesty. It has to be earned and be based on factual achievements.
Post-Brexit, the UK will have to embrace the underdog role, instead of that of the top dog, there is no dishonour in humility, at all.
The Scandinavian countries have owned modesty, quiet progression, compassion, charity and purity as their defining qualities for decades. After World War 2 Germany and Japan were forced to adopt a similar good guy underdog image. Only in the 21st
century, fifty years later, they are more readily internationally recognised as belonging to the very top of the top tier nations, not just economically but now politically too. And they are obviously not yet comfortable with it.
I can easily imagine the UK successfully selling the same properties as typically British. There is no country in the world where individual charity is so ubiquitous and generous.
If the UK is bound to belong at the economic superpower table in its own right, then I'm sure it will come to pass eventually. But not soon. Until then, the UK has to show humility.
Yet modesty and compassion do clash with the current picture of the UK because of the Leave fanatics' loudness, a nation and people bent on demanding without offering, Which is so much different, opposite even, from how the UK people generally have been (and mostly still are) experienced by foreign visitors.