What good has the Brand Council been if the country brand is so contested?

The heated dispute over the new country brand designed to promote tourism, and more importantly over the logo's authenticity have not brought up the fact that both the slogan and its graphics have been voted on by tens of Romanians, members of the authorities and private sector entrepreneurs, who were part of a Brand Council. The council was created precisely to allow for a more extensive debate and for the involvement of the tourism and communication industry into the decision making.
The Brand Council, which included representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Regional Development and Tourism, as well as representatives of big Romanian travel agencies and of the Hotel Industry Association, voted "by a wide majority" for the country brand logo that included a leaf, according to several participants at the council meetings.
"Over the span of two years there were a lot of meetings attended by tens of people from ministries, local authorities, travel agencies, as well as by public figures involved in advertising. In the meeting in which the graphs and the slogan were presented, over 20 proposals were voted on. There was a shortlist of six graphs with different fonts, and the graph that received the most votes won," Corina Vin]an, general manager of strategic communication agency Links Associates and consultant within Romania's Brand Council, told ZF.