Leo
Well-known member
When I visited Toko's future home, Oxford, I was struck by the way the entire town had been colonized by gift shops selling Oxford merch, Harry Potter chess sets, memorabilia of famous Oxfordians, etc. And of course Midtown NYC is the same way, every street has a gift shop selling Statue of Liberty magnets, I <3 NY postcards, snowglobes with the Empire State Building, button pins with Banksy reproductions. Every city's tourism economy acts as the propaganda engine for its host, but the overtness & saturation & self-consciousness of the branding undermines that brand (and the authenticity of the entire city) for its local denizens.
thankfully it's relegated to a couple of tourist areas, Times Sq/midtown and WTC.