Fatuous, clichéd or selective depictions of Bangkok by visiting filmmakers are so commonplace that foreign residents quickly stop registering them. What did puzzle me at first was why Thais weren't more upset by The Hangover Part II, and why the government of Thailand — which, as a major tourist destination, is rightly obsessed about its global image — allowed it to be filmed there.

Dev Patel, the Hollywood star, is to front a £100m advertising campaign promoting Britain to young, Asian tourists ahead of the Queen's diamond jubilee. Actor Rupert Everett and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver also appear in the adverts. Designed to lure more overseas tourists to the UK, the adverts are being complemented by short films from each celebrity, shot in a location of their choice.

...a team of four international Chinese sports personalities, including Yao Ming... took part in an image branding film for China that was telecast by CNN and shown in Times Square in New York."We would like our athletes to shine, to draw more eyeballs and help us in our marketing," Lu says.

Tunisia has little to lose in a go-for-broke strategy to bring back visitors. Like Egypt, its bigger neighbour to the east, the Arab Spring has garnered it a lot of Western admirers but has frightened sight-seers and beach denizens.

Before the re-branding Nigeria project initiated by Dora Akunyili, former minister of information and communication, Nigeria, analysts say, behaved as if the nation’s branding did not matter. The picture the international community painted about the country was that of corruption, money laundering, embezzlement, drug trafficking, mismanagement of abundant resources and other scary vices.

Nations are brands because people perceive them as brands. Few Ghanaians have time to learn what most countries are really like, so we navigate through the complexity of the modern world armed with a few simple clichés about places. The writer wants to know: What about Ghana? What are we going to use as a brand to attract people from outside Ghana?

It's becoming an area of spirited debate in government and financial circles - what is and isn't a BRIC country and how should they be classified? As the emerging world forges ahead and western economies hesitatingly recover from the financial crisis the call for inclusion in the BRIC block becomes louder.

IF you thought that the East Japan earthquake and tsunami would shake the cute off this country's young hipsters, think again. Harajuku, Tokyo's mecca for youth culture and fashion, is as cute and colorful as ever. That's the message of the Mighty Harajuku Project, started by Sebastian Masuda three days after the disaster.