Melissa Aronczyk
Department of Culture and Communication, New York University, USA
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Published in: The ESF-LiU Conference Cities and Media: Cultural Perspectives on Urban Identities in a Mediatized World Vadstena; Sweden; 25-29 October; 2
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 161:10, p. 111–120
Published: 2007-03-06
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
At the intersection of urban entrepreneurialism; communications technologies and transnational flows of capital and consumers lies the “place brand”: the representation of the city through the logos; slogans and symbols of advertising and branding agencies. Cities are increasingly turning to branding as a means of creating and conveying their identity to a public at large; for the purposes of attracting tourism; trade and talent; as well as greasing the wheels of public diplomacy.
This paper seeks to identify the origins; methods and outcomes of initiatives by cities to create a “brand identity” through private/public sector partnerships. The interpenetration of government and private enterprise to create the image of a city is not new; what is new is the transformation of the role of business in the articulation of a city’s identity. Through a case study of the cities of Montreal and Toronto; this paper investigates the relationship between what the proponents and practitioners of place branding say it does and what it actually does in a conceptual and practical sense.
