• The Wall Street Journal , Monday, October 27, 2008 11:30 AM

Nearly 250 companies have licensed the logo for a campaign called Colombia es Pasión -- or "Colombia is Passion" -- that seeks to restore global confidence in the country as a trading partner, tourism destination and investment opportunity. After years of violence and corruption, Colombia's tough-minded president, Alvaro Uribe, has developed a close alliance with Washington and unleashed a military offensive that has guerrillas reeling.

Marketing consultant David Lightle has worked with a public-private partnership in Colombia that operates two stores in Bogota offering hundreds of products featuring the campaign's heart-shaped logo. The logo also appears inside boxes of Colombia's exported roses and on the tail of one of the planes flown by national carrier Avianca. There's even a "Colombia is Passion" bicycling team.

Some critics say that such efforts often amount to mere sloganeering. British author and consultant Simon Anholtis, who coined the phrase "nation brand" in 1996, says it sums up a simple observation that "it's the responsibility of good governments to be, in effect, brand managers." But advertising and marketing entrepreneurs have so distorted the concept, he says, that he sometimes is sorry he brought it up. 

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