ABSTRACT
Aspects of temporality are often – explicitly or implicitly – incorporated into place marketing messages for towns and cities. Drawing on notions of ‘instrumental’ and ‘existential’ temporality, the chapter discusses the interplay of past, present and future in the representation of urban places as part of marketing/branding activities. Acknowledging the inherent selectivity of such activities, we draw not only on notions of memory/remembering by place marketers to communicate and celebrate the material and immaterial attributes of urban places, but also on the idea of ‘forgetting’. In this context, forgetting entails a deliberate glossing over of those undesirable historical aspects of a place that run counter to the positive image conveyed in marketing/branding initiatives. We consider how the history of the city may be (re)written to capitalise upon the past for the purposes of place marketing, particularly in terms of developing some form of distinctiveness in an ever-more competitive environment.
