Title: Caught in an inconvenient nation-branding promise: the problematic '100% pure New Zealand'

Authors: Fabrice Desmarais

Addresses: Waikato Management School, The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand

Abstract: This paper discusses the inconvenience of the hyperbolic '100% pure New Zealand' branding promise. It illustrates how a nation brand that promises so much can be at the mercy of the political swing of the pendulum. The paper reviews the unequal commitment to the brand promise by successive ideologically divergent governments and discusses the misalignment between the current government's policies and New Zealand's brand promise. It highlights recent attempts to reframe the inconvenient '100% pure' slogan instead of implementing policies and taking actions that would support the environment and therefore the nation brand.

Keywords: nation branding; advertising; slogans; New Zealand; politics; governments; government policy; greenwashing; framing; national brands; environmental protection.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2015.069395

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2015 Vol.16 No.1, pp.1 - 16

Received: 22 May 2014
Accepted: 06 Sep 2014

Published online: 14 May 2015 *

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