ABSTRACT
It is inherently more difficult to decode the imagery and promotional language of the contemporary city. The dominant images of the resort, the suburb and the industrial town were formed at a time removed from present-day experience. Because of this they acquire a particularity that allows us more easily to probe their nature. We are less likely to miss their most obvious messages because we do not treat them any longer as obvious. It is not so easy when we consider a promotional episode which is being shaped before our eyes. There is a greater likelihood that we may share the assumptions of the creators of the promotional imagery and therefore not regard them as worthy of comment or examination.
