The Challenge of Representing National Identities

One of the main problems faced when representing national identities is the use of stereotypes. Stereotypes have both positive and negative connotations, although they are often highly offensive to whom they are representative of, and are mainly blatant misconceptions of reality. However, as always it is dependent upon the target audience, and portraying one culture to another or to itself is a difficult task. Therefore by looking in to the audience's beliefs of what the other/their own culture is like, you can find a suitable way to represent the identity effectively, without insulting it.

In a one hour hit I created a small campaign for New York City Football Club, a new Major League Soccer team owned by a partnership between Manchester City and the New York Yankees, with the target audience being New Yorkers. Instead of looking in to the negative stereotypes of New Yorkers, I looked in to what it means to be one of them; even down to their use of public transport.

New Yorkers are perceived to always be 'in a rush,' but are they? By turning this perception on it's head I was able to pick out positive points, such as 'they know exactly what they want' and that they are 'efficient.' Both of these are traits of champions, reinforced by the repeated success of the New York Yankees, which happen to be in the same borough.

By forming a link between the football club and the Yankees I thought it would be an effective way of highlighting the New Yorker's efficient champion's mentality. I used the endline 'From One Pitch, To Another. This is Your City.' to unite the city as a whole and bring the existing sporting crowd in to the world of Major League Soccer. I believed that by targeting the already-existent sporting fan base it would unite the sports and spread the idea of being champions throughout the city, giving them a reason to support New York City Football Club.

Throughout this short project it occurred to me that stereotypes can be used in both positive and negative ways, dependent upon the way in which they are assembled. Providing their is existing evidence, when assembling a stereotype in a positive way you can learn a lot about the identity of the subject and in turn. how you can successfully communicate with them.