ASSIGNMENT #3

COMM2411 GROUP ASSIGNMENT 1.06.2010 Group members: Melanie Gleeson (s3286349), Lucy Burgemeister (s3281825), Thomas Nijam (s3195356) and Madaline Edye (s3284168).

Through studying the city as a text, we may perceive the creative means by which Melbourne’s urban youth culture is communicated; specifically through the advertising artefacts of the MX press, a Metro link train ticket, Street Press and the Starbucks coffee logo. Advertising proves to hold great potential in enhancing the branding of a city, and thus the chosen artefacts demonstrate an interrelation that ultimately illustrates Melbourne’s street culture identity.

Artefact 1: MX Newspaper

One only has to pass by Melbourne’s inner city train stations, bus stops or major urban intersections on any afternoon weekday to note the profound presence and social influence of the free, daily tabloid newspaper MX. Originating in Melbourne (and expanding to Sydney and Brisbane in its success), the newspaper is a unique advertising resource which assists in the development of urban economics, commerce and social relations on public transport. The paper’s ‘talk’ section proves powerful in stimulating interaction between commuters and local companies, whilst simultaneously communicating Melbourne’s imagined geographies and

cultural identity; ultimately encouraging travel to be seen as a social experience, rather than purely practical activity.

Dependent on advertising revenue for its free distribution, MX can be seen as an essential, strategic marketing medium to connect young readers with Melbourne’s ever-changing commerce, sporting, artistic and stylistic spheres. Indeed as is explored in the 2009 promotional trade reel, MX’s highly visual format has an urban authority unrivalled by other media in the market. In drawing upon the commerce, festivals, bands, performances and fashion of the community, it can advertise and entertain for numerous groups and parties, all the while leaving the readership with “a sense of ownership,” (2009), a concept that all editorial content is representing the city through which they literally and figuratively navigate.

The MX ‘talk’ section specifically engages with advertising in more ways the one; creatively complimenting Melbourne’s multifaceted identity. Thus it also acts as an advertising source for its public’s thoughts, interests, humour, and views, utilising current local, national and international affairs (often of an entertaining, eccentric nature) as stimuli for engaging discussion. Numerous media scholars and journalism professors view such content as a shortcoming of ‘free dailies’ (Bakker, 2002), suggesting the paper’s reliance on advertising revenue diminishes the editorial content. They argue that the abandonment of ‘real news’ for attention-grabbing information fails to truly articulate the societal and community issues which the newspaper should report (Franklin, 1998). In many respects, the increasing profits made by free newspapers accurately reflect their favouring of advertising over news, and their negative effects on urban paid-papers, however MX does not attempt to be marketed or identified as a high-profile news bulletin. It instead aims to be consumed differently (MX trade reel, 2009) in its interactive, inclusive style; to celebrate and further social relations on public transport whilst engaging a demographic of young, busy individuals who are increasingly difficult to reach with traditional media.

The success of daily commuter newspaper cannot be denied; the very “MX” logo can now be considered an image which consequently represents many images of Melbourne. The advertising and commerce which act as a framework for the paper ultimately reflects Melbourne’s urbanity: we have forever been acknowledged as a business-oriented city, as much as it is a cultural and sporting hub.

References: · Franklin, B 1998, ‘Chapter 10: No news isn’t good news: the development of local free newspapers,’ in Murphy, D, Franklin, B, Making the Local News: local journalism in context, Routledge, London, New York, pp 125-139 · Bakker, P 2002, ‘Chapter 6: Reinventing Newspapers: Readers and markets of free dailies,’ in Picard, RG, Media firms: structures, operations and performance, Lawrence Erlbaum associates publishers, London, pp 69-76 (Bakker = media firm scholar

· ‘MX 2009 Trade Reel,’ 2009, News Limited, Melbourne, viewed 18 April 2010, <http://player.video.news.com.au/heraldsun/ #jgS4ncEGXClsSvvCBWpfEohnvYB08rA_>

Artefact2: Metro Link train ticket

The simple artefact of a train-ticket proves to represent our city in many forms. Despite being an everyday object we so often discard effortlessly and unthinkingly, it can be viewed as an object with powerful potential to communicate the everyday life and social relations of the city of Melbourne. The Melbourne City Council have taken the opportunity to advertise on public transport tickets, promoting the city’s rich cultural and arts calendar all year round.

Ultimately, in utilizing the communication profession of advertising, Melbourne can promote a defined city of cultural imaginaries.

Advertising is undoubtedly a profound tool in the global marketplace, having the power to address and establish a brand identity for a city. In viewing the city as a text, the concept of

ticket advertising encapsulates the essence that advertising is everywhere. In close investigation of this omnipresence, it becomes clear that Melbourne has become a branded city parallel to the likes of New York. New York reinvented its brand identity in 1979 through strategic use of urban branding, paying particular focus to advertising an energetic city that they could sell to tourists. Advertising plays a huge role in defining a city’s climate for tourism and New York effectively shaped a utopian image of a city to play and live (Greenberg 2008). Comparably the Melbourne City Council have used the simplest form of transport tickets to advertise a lively city and cultural Mecca bursting with arts and social events to intrigue tourists and to present an identity to a global audience. Thus in his discussion of marketing New York to tourists Greenberg (2008) highlights the importance of marketing the city as a ‘luxury product’.

The advertising on public transport tickets clearly reflects the cultural climate of Melbourne.

However it is interesting that advertising can be limited to promoting cultural status or charitable causes in a media-saturated city. Events that are advertised in Melbourne highlight tourist attractions, places of interest in the city and things to see. As is evident with the chosen artefact, the train ticket is part of a greater series which advertises Victoria’s Shrine of Remembrance. The artwork on the ticket thus draws upon the city’s history to communicate a perspective of Melbourne’s cultural and social relations. The events promoted on tickets have the capacity to be exposed to a mass audience, consisting of public transport commuters and tourists; Flinders Street Station in Melbourne alone attracts over 110,000 commuters on an average weekday (Melbourne Transport 2010). Interestingly, of this number, almost all of them would appear to be oblivious to the reality that they are exposed to the advertising of Melbourne’s brand image on their ticket stub.

The form of advertising on public transport tickets indeed highlights the branding of Melbourne; a process which profoundly illustrates how the city has defined and constructed an identity through its rich social and arts culture, and promoted said images to a mass local and global audience.

References: · Department of Transport, 2010, History of Flinders Street Station, viewed 18 May 2010,<http://www.doi.vic.gov.au/DOI/Internet/transport.nsf/AllDocs/ 60FC28D7E8B7CB46CA2576A8001AFA38?OpenDocument#more> · Greenberg, M 2008, ‘Marketing the City in Crisis: Branding and Reconstructing New York City in the 1970s and the Post 9/11 Era’, in Consuming the Entrepreneurial City, eds A Cronin & K Hetherington, Routledge, New York, pp. 19-24. · Greenberg, M, 2008, Branding New York: How a City in Crisis Was Sold to the World, Routledge, New York, pp. 32-40

Artefact 3: The Starbucks logo

Like the train ticket above, the simplistic and mundane coffee cup is highly significant when examining Melbourne’s contemporary and urban lifestyle in accordance to its coffee culture.

The logo, inspired by Moby Dick, depicts an image of a "twin-tailed siren" which is said to evoke the romance of the high seas and represent the seafaring traditon of the erarly coffee traders. The advertising/promotion on the side of the cup works to endorse and encourage coffee drinkers to head to the American base chain, however in doing so, it opens a debate regarding the belongingness of the coffee giant in Melbourne, underlying the primary notion of Melbourne’s love hate relationship with America.

Due to the many boutique coffee shops that produce exceptional coffees around the city, buying coffee from Starbucks is often frowned upon within Melbourne’s coffee culture; in fact, there is an undefined coffee war and rule that states real Melbournians should never purchase coffee from the American coffee giant. The Starbucks’ ‘rule’ opens a debate between members of Melbourne’s coffee society to a point where a logo on a coffee cup, similar to the artifact, can show allegiance to one side or another.

“The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers’ (Anticorporate) Experiences of Glocalization” study looks at the role Starbucks plays as homogenization power in an industry of small, single-sited establishments known as the local coffee shop. With much of the study focusing on the Starbucks’ stratospheric growth and market dominance, Arsel & Thompson (2004, p.635) form a primarily negative stance towards the Starbucks industry, depicting the coffee giant as no more than a “Conservative, relatively banal cultural space, catering to an equally bland corporate clientele” . In this secondary resource, Starbucks, through its market dominance, is epitomized as a “diabolical force” (Arsel, Z & Thompson, C 2004, p.635) of evil. Similarly, Cooke portrays a similar view in his article suggesting that the day “Starbucks came to Lygon Street was like Scientologists setting up in Vatican City. Sacrilegious” (2008) however, in Dickinson’s opinion, Starbucks serves to effectively and forcefully position the consumer in a particular space and time responding to the “difficulties of finding and making stabilized places in a postmodern world” (2002, p.6)

References: · Arsel, Z & Thompson, C 2004, “The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers' (Anticorporate) Experiences of Glocalization”, The Journal of Consumer Research, vol.31, iss.3, pp.631-642, viewed 10 April 2010, EBSCO host · Cooke, D 2008, “American coffee culture gets roasted”,The Age, 2 April, viewed 11 April 2010, http://www.theage.com.au/national/american-coffeeculture-gets-roasted-20080801-3olt.html · Dickinson, G 2002, “Joe’s Rhetoric- Finding Authenticity at Starbucks”, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, vol.http://www.informaworld.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/smpp/

title~db=all~content=t716100769~tab=issueslist~branches=32 - v3232, iss.4, pp. 5 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 27, viewed 10 April 2010, EBSCO host

Artefact 4: Street Press Magazines

The roots of ‘Stress Press’ can be traced back to the boundless thirst for information and knowledge by Melbourne’s inhabitants, and thus it marks a key communication device through which the city presents and examines its contemporary, urban lifestyle. These magazines, generally published weekly, are made all the more accessible by free publication and distribution to city hotspots.

Melbourne’s Street Press magazines, most of which are made with high quality production values, contain information that is in high demand by demographics who show an interest in the art; it is thus necessary, and evident that Melbourne’s contemporary live music scene takes up numerous pages in the majority of the magazines. These publications are usually found on the doorsteps of trendy cafes and music shops, universities and retail outlets and their abundance of significant, well-written editorial content ensures that copies are rapidly collected.

When Melbournians become consumers of Street Press, their lifestyles become affected and molded by the information contained within each publication, and hence over time, the success of this lifestyle becomes linked (if not dependent on) the continued publication of the magazines. This reliance is pointed out by Leung (1998) in his statement that, “the products that people use are a marker of their lifestyles and the adoption of such objects reflects the interdependent roles of lifestyles and the consumption objects to classify”(p. 142). The need for such publications ultimately creates a form of interpellation, a bond between the city and its inhabitants, as they are used by individuals to establish a personal and communal, social identity for Melbourne.

The relationship that Melbourne has with its residents is formed partly by the inflow of information that Street Press provides. Naturally, the city’s citizens turn to such publications to increase their knowledge of local events and affairs, and thus develop a dependency on the medium when planning their social calendar and to learn. As Lewis (1984) points out, “community information available in free papers carries all kinds of ‘living information’ that is useful in everyday life (p. 148).” The fact that these publications exist indicates that there is a relationship between the readership and the city, effectively molding and transforming the meaning that it has to different people.

Melbourne can take on many different meanings, shapes and sizes but in relation to Street Press, it can be defined as a city which celebrates the arts; one that uses this love to create

strong relations between its identity and its people. It is even acknowledged on the Street Press Australia Website that the publication is “the leading choice in reaching Australia’s youth” when compared to other forms of media. Overall, it is a free, distinctly ‘Melbournian’ resource which covers the fantastic food and live music scene that is offered within the city, and illustrates the strong link between advertising professions and youth street culture.

References: · Leung, L 1998, ‘Lifestyles and the Use of New Media Technologies in Urban China,’ New Media Technology in China, Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 22, no. 9, P. 781-790. · Lewis, P Ed. 1984, ‘Media for People in Cities: A Study of Community Media in the Urban Context,’ United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

London. P. 141-157. · The Street Press Australia Story, Street Press Australia. Viewed April 16, 2010. <http://streetpress.com.au/w3/>