Reinvention is a dangerous business. For many people the solution comes in an overpriced bottle or at the end of a sharp surgical instrument. Companies find it through a new corporate identity or new organic- shaped furniture in the canteen. But what do you do if you’re a country that needs a total overhaul?

In less critical cases you call in the branding experts, they give you a snappy presentation and you pay dearly for a new slogan. Portugal recently attempted to fashion itself as “Europe’s West Coast”. I’m not sure what the Irish and Norwegians made of this claim, but it left me wondering whether Portugal was selling itself as the potential home of a Euro-Google/Nike/Microsoft or a land that might soon be filled with malls and washed-up celebrities. The ad campaign never delivered much of an answer.