After more than 50 years in advertising, Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, certainly knows a thing or two about branding. But now he’s worried about the biggest branding problem he’s ever tackled – Brand America.

“Our brand is being defined by other voices, especially in the aftermath of September 11, 2001,” Mr. Reinhard said. “Others see us as arrogant, ignorant, insensitive, disrespectful toward foreign cultures, and self-centered. Of course, America is still admired as a land of opportunity, freedom, diversity, creativity. But recent surveys have shown the negative feelings about America are widening.”

Mr. Reinhard believes the American business community should address the problem.

Even though American exports are running at a healthy annual clip of $650 billion, one out of four consumers in the Asia-Pacific region and 18% of consumers in the G-8 countries are avoiding American brands, according to a survey commissioned by Mr. Reinhard. Anti-Americanism and tighter visa policies are also keeping tourists away from our shores. The American share of global tourism fell to 6% in 2004 from 7.4% in 2000. Mr. Reinhard emphasizes that each percentage point represents 7.4 million tourists, 153,000 jobs domestically, and $12.3 billion in revenues for America’s economy.

And so, in the spirit that has characterized his career since he left his hometown of Berne, Ind. (population: 2,000), after high school to seek his fortune in big cities like Chicago, Mr. Reinhard has decided to counter anti-Americanism.

“Whenever I’m faced with a challenge, I always think of the guy in my hometown who told me I’d never succeed in advertising,” Mr. Reinhard said. “That made me even more determined to succeed.”

He and his wife, Rose-Lee, started Business for Diplomatic Action, with some financial assistance from companies such as Pepsi and UPS. The group has brought together 150 well-known professionals from advertising, marketing, communications, the press, academe, and other fields.

“BDA’s purpose is to sensitize American companies and individuals to the rise of anti-Americanism globally – its root causes and implications – and enlist the business community in implementing specific actions aimed at addressing the problem,” Mr. Reinhard said.

The organization’s board of directors is made up mostly of media and marketing executives, including top executives of the three companies that function under the rubric of the Omnicom Group, the world’s biggest advertising holding group. Mr. Reinhard was instrumental in bringing DDB together with Needham Harper Worldwide and BBDO to form Omnicom in 1986. DDB alone has 206 offices in 96 countries; Omnicom’s revenues in 2004 were $9.7 billion, a 13.1% increase over the previous year.

Mr. Reinhard’s new organization, BDA, has so far produced and distributed 250,000 “world citizenship” guides to Americans studying abroad. The guide offers suggestions for how these young Americans can be better diplomats while sensitizing them to foreign cultures. BDA members have taken part in dozens of seminars in America and overseas, and Mr. Reinhard testified before Congress on the private sector’s role in the Bush administration’s plans to promote public diplomacy. BDA is now asking the American business community to take on the task of “out-recruiting bin Laden.”

Mr. Reinhard and his wife have long been active in philanthropy in New York, although in a quiet fashion. Mrs. Reinhard is a co-founder of Wellmet, a foundation that awards grants to struggling New York women’s groups that have “fallen between the cracks.”

His maternal grandfather, Japtha Liechty, was, among other things, an auctioneer and real estate broker.

“I learned the art of selling from him,” Mr. Reinhard said. “I learned from him how important it is to listen carefully to your customers”

That lesson helped Mr. Reinhard create three of the advertising industry’s most memorable lines: “You deserve a break today” and “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun,” for McDonald’s, and “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” for State Farm Insurance.

The lessons he learned about staying close to the customer are particularly relevant for the advertising industry now, Mr. Reinhard said, because consumer habits are perceptibly changing. He quoted a recent study showing that, for the first time ever, teenagers in America listed the Internet as their preferred medium, ahead of television and print.

“The advertising business has to accept this and expand our creativity beyond the television screen and the printed page,” Mr. Reinhard said. “There are radical changes in our clients’ needs. So we’ve got to create not just messages for a product but a total brand experience that the consumer chooses to engage with. This requires a change in mindset.”

That change is something Mr. Reinhard is also promoting in the American business community concerning America’s image in the world.

“We need to dramatically improve the brand experience of America as seen in other cultures,” he said. “If we don’t do something about it, American brands will take more hits, and America is likely to lose its competitive edge. And our kids and grandkids will face a hostile and unfriendly world.”