Toward a Conceptual Understanding of Formula One Motorsport and Local Cosmopolitanism Discourse in Urban Placemarketing Strategies

Abstract

Guided by a conceptual approach, this article delves into the image-saturated world of Formula One (F1) motorsport to argue that the interrelations among sport mega events, urban identity, and placemarketing work to create spectacular entertainment events that embody a distinctly promotional performance of local cosmopolitanism. F1 events are staged promotional performances of local cosmopolitanism intended for a global audience and feature prominently in urban placemarketing strategies. Hosting such sport mega events is a constitutive feature of placemarketing strategies designed and implemented by host cities to join the ranks of “world-class” cosmopolitan cities. F1 motorsport is a representation of a particular conception of urban cosmopolitanism, one that embodies a fusion of sports entertainment, symbolic capital, and image into a single placemarketing product. The article concludes that the bombardment of visual signs advertising elite global mega brands constructs a specific identity for host cities anchored in a broad discourse of cosmopolitanism. This deployment of visual indicators is designed to link the image of F1 cities with the desired lifestyle markers that are constitutive features of the aesthetic of contemporary urban cosmopolitanism.