ABSTRACT
Cities are regarded as economic assets rather than liabilities reflected in the renewed investment in cities in the 2000s and the growing attraction of urban life, both of which are vital to economic competitiveness. A number of critics of Florida's creative class thesis have argued that it is an insufficient basis for urban competitiveness and that attention is deflected away from lower social groups by dividing creative class from service class. Since the emergence of urban entrepreneurialism as a mode of urban governance, publicity and advertising campaigns have been important ingredients in the process of place rebranding and marketing, which seeks to improve urban competitiveness. Urban images can be cleverly manipulated and transformed by city authorities to encourage investment or to attract visitors, concomitant with urban regeneration aspirations. Positive images of the city created in promotional campaigns and in urban regeneration have acted as ‘masks' hiding the reality of wider urban problems.
