Research Catalog

Title

Branding New York : how a city in crisis was sold to the world / by Miriam Greenberg.

Author

Greenberg, Miriam.

Publication

New York : Routledge, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xv, 326 pages : illustrations; 23 cm.

Summary

"This book reveals how, at the height of the 1970s fiscal crisis, a coalition of New York elites came together to brand a new image for their embattled city. By the mid-1960s, lurid media coverage of New York's troubles generated an image crisis that exacerbated economic decline. This inspired public and private sector leaders to abandon old-fashioned city boosterism and turn to the coordinated, professional, and global strategy of urban branding. From the radical chic of New York magazine to the populism of "Big Apple," and culminating with the blockbuster "I love NY" campaign, they created a new business and tourist-friendly image for New York featuring high-end shopping, Broadway theater, and a glittering city skyline. This image challenged longstanding representations of New York as a gritty, diverse, working class city, as well as its emerging reputation as the capital of punk and hip hop. And it helped package a controversial approach to economic recovery involving harsh austerity measures, corporate subsidies, privatization, and a polarized new economy. Ultimately, the branding of New York turned the city into a powerful if contradictory symbol of urban transformation. It ignited grassroots "counter-branding" tactics, from subway graffiti to the union-led "Fear City" campaign. And it convinced tourists, corporations, and conservative politicians, that this once "ungovernable city" was now tamed and ready for consumption."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Cultural spaces series

Uniform Title

Cultural spaces series.

Subjects

• New York (N.Y.) > Press coverage
• Advocacy advertising > New York (State) > New York
• Mass media and business > New York (State) > New York
• Corrective advertising > New York (State) > New York
• New York (N.Y.) > Public relations

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [307]-316) and index.

Contents

Introduction: New York, Capital of the 1970s -- Prologue: From the Standpoint of the Out-of-Towner -- Ch. 1. Branding and the Neoliberal City -- Pt. I. From Image Crisis to Fiscal Crisis: 1964-1974 -- Ch. 2. It's a Small World After All: Image Crisis and the End of New York City Boosterism -- Ch. 3. Style and Power: The Common Sense of New York Magazine -- Ch. 4. Selling the City in Crisis: Corporate Exodus and the Big Apple Campaign -- Pt. II. The Battle to Brand New York: 1975-1985 -- Ch. 5. Welcome to Fear City -- Ch. 6. From Big Apple to the Summer of Sam -- Ch. 7. Purging New York through I Love NY -- Conclusion: The Legacy of the 1970s -- Ch. 8. New York City as a Symbol of Neoliberalism -- Epilogue: Re-branding the Wounded City.

ISBN

• 9780415954419 (cloth)
• 041595441X (cloth)
• 9780415954426 (pbk.)
• 0415954428 (pbk.)

LCCN

• 2007031856
• 40015209351

OCLC

• ocn165081811
• 165081811
• SCSB-9051750

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries