Brand America glows in the magic of the Obama touch

A new global survey shows Obama's election and international popularity have made America the world's most admired national "brand" – at least outside of North Korea, Iran and the Taliban-held zone of Afghanistan. The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index (NBI) survey of most admired countries has been conducted annually since 2005. This year the US topped the list for the first time, climbing six spots. Despite Obama’s difficulties back home, he has been well-received internationally. “What’s really remarkable is that in all our years studying national reputation, we’ve never seen any country experience such a dramatic change in its standing as we see for the US in 2009,” the NBI said. However, popularity is insufficient to win key objectives. This was shown in Obama’s failure to sell Chicago to the IOC for 2016. The current top five, with last year’s ranks in brackets, are: 1. US (7) 2. France (2) 3. Germany (1) 4. UK (3) 5. Japan (5)