In October 2009, Kosovo launched a €5.7 million nation-branding campaign created by BBR Saatchi & Saatchi (Israel) with its local partners. The Kosovo government has explicitly stated that the campaign is offered as a corrective against the negative perception of the country, and that it is ‘not only an economic campaign to bring new investments but also is a political one’. Yet, though the advertisements claim to change external perception of the country, the campaign has also been conducted within Kosovo itself: billboards, promotional events and television ads have all been used. This paper considers the implication of the nation branding campaign within Kosovo. For branding specialists, campaigns are most effective when they create a ‘spirit of benign nationalism’ (Anholt 2007). But what kind of nationalism is fostered by these ads? The paper will explore the ‘imagined’ Kosovo expressed by the advertisements and considers its implications for marginalised, rural and minority communities. Based on interviews conducted in Kosovo, I will present some findings on the local reception of the advertisements. Moreover, the paper considers the impact of using international advertising agencies to create such nation branding campaigns. The advertisements reflect Kosovo as imagined by a transnational elite, who has limited access to the local language and culture. This brings to nationalism a novel aspect: its internationalisation. The paper will explore the fashioning of a nation brand via a global creative process, and trace the network of actors involved in the transnational production of national imaginaries.
