PLANET AMERICA

Down in the mall, between the fast food joint and the bagel shop, a group of young people huddle in a flurry of baggy combat pants, skateboards and slang. They size up a woman teetering past wearing DKNY, carrying Time magazine in one hand and a latte in the other. She brushes past a guy in a Yankees baseball cap who is talking on his Motorola cell phone about the Martin Scorsese film he saw last night.

It’s a standard American scene – only this isn’t America, its Britain. U.S. culture is so pervasive, the scene could be part of any of the dozens city. Budapest or Berlin, if not Bogota or Bordeaux. Even Delhi or Mumbai. As the rivaled global superpower, Aerica exports its culture on an unprecedented scale… Sometimes (in fact all the times), U.S. ideals get transmitted - such as individual rights, freedom of speech and respect for women- and local cultures are enriched. At other times, materialism or worse become the message and local traditions get crushed.

“Today, globalization often wears Mickey Mouse ears, eat Big Macs, drinks Coke or Pepsi, and does its computing( with Microsoft) windows (software),” says Thomas Friedman, in his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Critics worry that under such “MacDomination” countries around the globe are losing their individuality under cultural identities. Teens in India watch MTV and ask their parents for more westernized clothes( or no clothes...thanks to Miley Cyrus and her twerking performances) and other symbol of American pop culture and values. Grandmothers in small European villas no longer spend each morning visiting local meat shops, or bakeries, to gather the ingredients for supper. Instead, they now shop at Wal- mart superstores. Women in Saudi Arabia see American filmsand question their societal roles. In China, most people never drank coffee before Starbucks entered the markets (same is in India… now drinking coffee is status symbol from these fancy coffee shops). Now, Chinese consumers rush to Starbucks stores “because it’s a symbol of new kind of lifestyle.” Similarly in China, where McDonald’s operates 80 restaurants in Beijing alone, nearly half of all children identify the chain as domestic brand.( courtesy Philip Kotler)

When India opened itself for outside world in 1991 every Indian was filled with mixed feelings. Everybody wondered “is the decision right or wrong”. Time passed and so did the apprehensions but the debate about opening an economy to others still remained same. Before writing this post I was the part of lot that believes that globalization is good for an economy “in every respect”. But I was partially wrong. Not in every respect. It’s like a two way sword. Today not only India but every country is suffering from a cultural impact. More or less its America followed by other countries. Thus leaving us not a true breed but somewhat a mix of different cultures. We are that bad that neither we can take up our cultures truly neither we can completely get Americanized. So here we are standing all lost with no identities and no individualities.

  

Either it is drinks to food to movies to electronics to fashion to knowledge its “Americanized”. I at times wonder that as a marketer what would be the reality. We are living in a fake world which is made up by superpowers (not God here of course). But what if we reverse and delete all this. I guess we will be doomed. Thus globalization (or better call it “Americanization”) is a two way street. If globalization has Mickey Mouse ears, it is also wearing a French beret, talking on apple cell phone, using Indian software, buying furniture at IKEA, driving a Toyota Camry, and watching a Sony big screen plasma TV.