IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/pbapdi/v17y2021i4d10.1057_s41254-020-00170-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Personality association and celebrity museumification of George Best (with nods to John Lennon)

Author

Listed:
  • Philip Boland

    (Queen’s University Belfast)

  • Stephen McKay

    (Queen’s University Belfast)

Abstract

It is common practice for cities to be associated with celebrated sons and (sometimes) daughters. This is tied to aligning the branding process to a selected individual’s personality, achievements or celebrityhood to ‘sex up’ the city’s image. In this paper, we compare and contrast the ‘museumification’ of George Best in Belfast and John Lennon in Liverpool. Our findings show, as expected, similarities in how both artists have been museumified in their respective cities; more importantly, however, we also demonstrate significant differences in how the celebrity museumification and associated landscaping has been received in Belfast and Liverpool. Firstly, it is claimed that Liverpool’s association with Lennon is based on a ‘highly selective’ reading of his life and ‘cleaning up’ of his past; however, this is not the case with Best in Belfast. Secondly, the celebrity museumification of Lennon received widespread local support; this is not the case with Best due to an ongoing debate about his suitability as a Belfast icon. We problematise this situation and ruminate as to why Best is seemingly more divisive compared to Lennon. Beyond the spatial spotlight of Belfast and Liverpool, the findings from this paper offer insights and lessons for place branding professionals and practitioners in other cities around the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip Boland & Stephen McKay, 2021. "Personality association and celebrity museumification of George Best (with nods to John Lennon)," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(4), pages 409-419, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:pbapdi:v:17:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1057_s41254-020-00170-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41254-020-00170-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41254-020-00170-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41254-020-00170-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pamela Philipose & Mukul Kesavan, 2019. "The #MeToo Movement," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 26(1-2), pages 207-214, February.
    2. Andy Pike, 2013. "Economic Geographies of Brands and Branding," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 89(4), pages 317-339, October.
    3. Stephen Brown & Pierre McDonagh & Clifford J. Shultz II, 2013. "Titanic: Consuming the Myths and Meanings of an Ambiguous Brand," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(4), pages 595-614.
    4. Gregory J. Ashworth & Mihalis Kavaratzis, 2011. "Why Brand the Future with the Past? The Roles of Heritage in the Construction and Promotion of Place Brand Reputations," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Frank M. Go & Robert Govers (ed.), International Place Branding Yearbook 2011, chapter 0, pages 25-38, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Nicole Porter, 2020. "Strategic planning and place branding in a World Heritage cultural landscape: a case study of the English Lake District, UK," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(7), pages 1291-1314, July.
    6. Andy Pike, 2013. "Economic Geographies of Brands and Branding," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(4), pages 317-339, October.
    7. William J.V. Neill, 2011. "The Debasing of Myth: The Privatization of Titanic Memory in Designing the ‘Post-conflict’ City," Journal of Urban Design, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 67-86.
    8. Jamie Peck, 2015. "Cities beyond Compare?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 160-182, January.
    9. Liam O'Dowd & Milena Komarova, 2013. "Three narratives in search of a city," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 526-546, August.
    10. Renaud Vuignier, 2017. "Place branding & place marketing 1976–2016: A multidisciplinary literature review," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(4), pages 447-473, December.
    11. Ewa Glińska & Oleg Gorbaniuk, 2016. "Restrictions on the use of the Aaker model in the measurement of city brand personality: The sender’s perspective," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 46-58, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ida Andersson & Laura James, 2018. "Altruism or entrepreneurialism? The co-evolution of green place branding and policy tourism in Växjö, Sweden," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(15), pages 3437-3453, November.
    2. Patrizia Casadei & Neil Lee, 2020. "Global cities, creative industries and their representation on social media: A micro-data analysis of Twitter data on the fashion industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(6), pages 1195-1220, September.
    3. Di Wu & Neil M. Coe, 2023. "Bottom-up cluster branding through boundary spanners: The case of the Jingdezhen ceramics cluster in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(14), pages 2874-2900, November.
    4. Xialei Duan & Lawal Mohammed Marafa & Chung-Shing Chan & Han Xu & Lewis T. O. Cheung, 2020. "Measuring the Gaps in the Projected Image and Perceived Image of Rural Tourism Destinations in China’s Yangtze River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Kleibert, Jana M., 2021. "Geographies of Marketization in Higher Education: Branch Campuses as Territorial and Symbolic Fixes," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 97(4), pages 315-337.
    6. Shyamain Wickramasingha, 2023. "Geographies of dissociation: informality, ethical codes and fragmented labour regimes in the Sri Lankan apparel industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(6), pages 1191-1211.
    7. Pradeep K. Chintagunta & Junhong Chu, 2021. "Geography as branding: Descriptive evidence from Taobao," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 53-92, March.
    8. Cheng‐Yi Lin, 2021. "State Strategy in the Trans‐Local Branding of a Creative Industry Cluster: A Case Study of the Product Design Industry in Taipei," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 112(3), pages 274-287, July.
    9. Ibert, Oliver & Hess, Martin & Kleibert, Jana & Müller, Felix & Power, Dominic, 2019. "Geographies of dissociation: Value creation, ‘dark’ places, and ‘missing’ links," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 43-63.
    10. Pamela K. Robinson & Linda Hsieh, 2016. "Reshoring: a strategic renewal of luxury clothing supply chains," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 89-101, December.
    11. Evan Cleave & Godwin Arku & Merlin Chatwin, 2019. "Are they Surgeons? or are they Plumbers? Assessing the Role of Private Sector Consultants in Place Branding and Other Place-Based Economic Development Strategies," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 179-200, June.
    12. Inès Hassen & Massimo Giovanardi, 2021. "Deflecting national ideologies: Exploring identity management trajectories of medium-sized cities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1525-1546, September.
    13. Amir Maghssudipour & Annalisa Caloffi & Marco Bellandi & Letizia Donati, 2022. "Language as a regional driver of the trade of place-sensitive products: The case of made-in-Italy goods," Working Papers - Economics wp2022_09.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    14. Flikkema, Meindert & Castaldi, Carolina & de Man, Ard-Pieter & Seip, Marcel, 2019. "Trademarks’ relatedness to product and service innovation: A branding strategy approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1340-1353.
    15. Fulong Wu, 2016. "China's Emergent City-Region Governance: A New Form of State Spatial Selectivity through State-orchestrated Rescaling," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1134-1151, November.
    16. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2018. "From Kampungs to Condos? Contested accumulations through displacement in Jakarta," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 437-456, March.
    17. Silvia Biraghi & Rossella Chiara Gambetti & Angela Antonia Beccanulli, 2020. "Achieving cultural relevance in technomediated platforms: instant cultural branding and controversial clicktivism," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2020(2), pages 163-187, September.
    18. Assumpció Huertas & Antonio Moreno & Jordi Pascual, 2021. "Place Branding for Smart Cities and Smart Tourism Destinations: Do They Communicate Their Smartness?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, October.
    19. Kevin Ward & Timothy Bunnell, 2021. "Reflections on five years of the Summer Institute in Urban Studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 863-878, March.
    20. Sally Weller, 2017. "Fast Parallels? Contesting Mobile Policy Technologies," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 821-837, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:pbapdi:v:17:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1057_s41254-020-00170-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.