ABSTRACT
Marketing practices have spread to the point that they now include nations. On the basis of an analysis of the creation of the brand of Abu Dhabi (2007), considered as both a material and an immaterial object, the chapter seeks to examine the links between slogans as defined in the introduction to this volume (“a formula with effect”), the contemporary economy characterized by the spread of neoliberalism, and the context of socio-economic and urban change. This work is based on the hypothesis that in the case of nation branding, it is generally the name of the place that makes the slogan, leading to the “slogan-name”. This has to do with the necessity of a nation to produce national narratives in the age of globalization (trying to articulate internal and external issues and categories of people) and with the “economy of renown”, which rests on different forms of exchange.
