Brand USA queen gives up the throne

CHARLOTTE Beers, friend of US Secretary of State Colin Powell and domestic goddess Martha Stewart, is leaving her job as advertising director of the USA at the time when chief executive George Bush needs international image-building more than ever.

Known as 'The Queen of Madison Avenue' for her ability to sell vacuum cleaners, shampoo and food products, Beers is leaving her post as Undersecretary of State of public affairs and public diplomacy for unspecified health reasons.

Privately, Washington wags are saying the job of selling America as a diverse, diplomatic and sensitive country was a difficult task destined to make anyone sick.

The woman who once ate dog food and vacuumed up live goldfish in an effort to impress prospective clients, lasted 17 months in Washington's meat grinder. During her tenure, she attempted to brighten America's image abroad with documentaries, advertising campaigns, leaflets and promo pieces - largely aimed at the Middle East - that were often derided in the Arab Press as ineffectual and sometimes as insulting.

Polling data suggests the vast majority of Saudi Arabians, Kuwaitis and Egyptians, to name three nationalities she targeted, continue to hold a very low opinion of the US despite the media and advertising-campaign, which included widely-aired documentaries featuring Muslim Americans attesting to the quality of life and freedom in the US. A recent Pew Research poll showed only 6% of Egyptians hold a favourable opinion of the US.

Tapped by Powell after 9/11 to sell 'Brand America', Beers' exit from Washington's power circle is a blow to Madison Avenue prowess. Instead of turning to another commercial wiz from New York's advertising world, Powell is temporarily replacing her with a diplomat, Assistant Secretary for Cultural Affairs Patricia Harrison.

In her last public testimony before Congress a fortnight ago, Beers talked of the difficulty of turning around negative beliefs about America even with a well-funded budget and crack production team. 'The gap between who we are and how we wish to be seen, and how we are in fact seen, is frighteningly wide,' said the only executive in advertising to have served as chairman of two of the world's top advertising agencies - J Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather.

One industry expert said he would be surprised if Powell could find another Madison Avenue executive with Beers' experience willing to take on the task of marketing America's image at a time when the 'product', as Powell called it, is arming for a controversial war.

In 2000, Powell plucked Beers, 67, from West Palm Beach, where she had recently retired from the advertising business and married for the third time. A wisecracking, colourful Southerner who called her chief executive clients 'honey' and ''darlin', Beers is expected to head back to Florida's warmer climes as early as next week. There she will be able to return to the trademark freestyling talk and unconventional ways she muted during her Washington tenure.

While her goal was to put 'emotion' into previously bland State Department messages, she diplomatically refrained from the 'provocative disruption' she delighted in displaying during her Madison Avenue days. 'I dress with flamboyance,' she once said. 'It's half the fun of not being a guy.'