Brand Borat? Americans' reaction to a Kazakhstani place branding campaign

In late 2006, the government of Kazakhstan sponsored a multi-media advertising campaign in the United States. The television commercial from that campaign served as the stimulus for a pre-post experiment to determine if US citizens' attitudes changed as the result of viewing it. Findings showed that although public diplomacy-related attitudes toward the Kazakhstani government and Kazakhstani people did not change after seeing the commercial, tourism-related attitudes toward Kazakhstan improved significantly. A diagnostic copy test revealed that US viewers often reacted with surprise and disbelief to the commercial's exotic and appealing portrayal of Kazakhstan, a country about which they knew little before. The study has implications for countries wishing to establish and improve their images in the United States and adds to the growing literature on place branding.