Maybe you know, maybe you don’t; but last month Denmark was actively branded as a creative nation in the U.S. At this occasion we should show the Americans what true creativity is all about. Remember, we have delivered some fancy trash cans to MoMA, so we must be creative?!
Therefore we sent our creative elite to NYC to promote our skills: the Minister of Economic Affairs, Bent Bendtsen, the Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller, the crown prince and the crown princess. Together with them followed the innovative organization, Dansk Industri. Creative Nation arranged conferences, a gala and the crown prince even opened New York Stock Exchange.
Everything seemed so good, but shocking news arrived last week: Ritzau reported that almost none American medias have communicated the events! The Americans obvious did not care. The total of attention has summed up to only five newspaper articles and two features in tv-shows.
But how can that be? Lector Henrik Merkelsen from Copenhagen Business School has criticized the level of creativity – and I agree. It is the paradoxical lack of creativity by a nation claiming to be the creative nation that has been the problem. I can’t help thinking of the old saying: Don’t tell it – show it. If we want to be trustworthy and keep our integrity (authenticity?!) in the branding of ourselves as a creative nation we have to show it through our actions instead of just stating it. With all due respect it is not that creative or innovative to send the crown prince, the crown princess and the foreign minister.
For next time: act creative, create some street art, arrange happenings, make some noise, join a creative nation!
