Al Jazeera's (Global) Mission

It's the second day of the Sundance Film Festival, and Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, is on his way to a premiere. But first, he urgently wants to talk about AJI.

In addition to his work at the big Omnicom ad agency, Reinhard devotes much of his time to Business for Diplomatic Action, a task force of high-voltage marketing, political science, research, and media types that he founded to raise the alarm about growing anti-Americanism abroad--and to urge U.S. businesses to find ways to address it. Reinhard is such a key thinker in this arena that he spoke before the 9/11 Commission: In the Arab world, he said, "the United States government is simply not a credible messenger."

Reinhard sees America's problems in the region much as he would those of a brand in crisis and believes that only by reaching out can we begin to recoup our loss of prestige and political and economic influence. If America were a product, he says, a rehabilitation strategy might go like this: Take the brand's positives and amplify them; then take its negatives and try to fix either the faulty messaging or the faulty product. He strongly believes that AJI could help America change those negatives based on misunderstanding. As for those negatives that are actually true--well, "maybe we should rethink what we say and how we behave."

But these are not just liberal platitudes from a blue-state ad man. A recent survey by the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index produced grim results about the U.S. ranking among 25 developed and developing countries. While the United States is still recognized as the No. 1 place to do business in the world, as well as home to an attractive popular culture (No. 4), and crator of desirable brands (second only to Germany), it ranks dead last in cultural heritage--a score associated with maturity, wisdom, cultivation, humanity, and intelligence. That's below Turkey, China, and Egypt. "The U.S. rankings indicate that in certain respects, Brand America is still envied," says Anholt, developer of the index and also executive editor of the journal Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. "But the historic love affair that has been waning over the past several years has now ended. Younger generations around the world do not have a historical reservoir of goodwill toward the U.S."

America needs more friends, not more power, says Anholt. "If Americans start watching Al Jazeera International and start absorbing and appreciating other cultures, they may start to recuperate global respect," he says. "If there ever were a chance to break down the terrifying ignorance that's beginning to rise up--this black and dangerous chasm between Islam and Christianity--then this channel has the potential to do that."

America's stake in bridging that chasm grows larger every day. Rushing, who gave up his dream of being a lifelong Marine, took up this particular banner because he thinks that AJI could be the "Iwo Jima of information battlefields." Asked how he would define success, particularly given all he's sacrificed, he pauses, fixing his pale blue eyes on the questioner: "Nigel told me, 'America doesn't understand the world very well, but the world doesn't understand America, either.' If this network and I personally could be some kind of conduit between America and the world--and the world and America--that would be 'mission accomplished.' "

Linda Tischler (ltischler@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer.

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