The Globalization Of American Popular Culture

The economic dominance of the United States that we have seen nowadays was predicted beforehand in the mid-nineteenth century. American Popular Culture however, is estimated to have been relevant throughout the world ever since the 1950’s. It is often said now that globalization (the integration of markets, trade, finance, information and corporate ownership around the globe) is a predominantly American influence. Thomas L. Friedman states that globalization is nothing else but a high degree of Americanization (Big Mac II). This enquiry topic encompasses the influence of American culture worldwide, more specifically, the role of American corporations in foreign societies. It not only acknowledges how fast food chains have made their way into

“McDonald’s Japan, a.k.a “Makdonaldo,” is the biggest McDonald’s franchise outside the U.S... The McDonald’s folks even renamed Ronald McDonald in Japan “Donald McDonald” (Friedman). Also worth mentioning is the 1998 McDonald's snoopy fever in Hong Kong, where thousands of customers all ages rushed to collect 28 snoopy figurines offered with the Happy Meal. Keith B. Richburg states the following in his article: “Of course, very few people actually ate the food, especially after four weeks of daily visits. Some simply bought the meals to get the Snoopies, and then threw the food away or gave it to strangers. The homeless and the poor of Hong Kong began gathering near McDonald's to take the unwanted

This is the main cause that led several French farmers to protest against McDonald’s in 1999: According to an article in The Times (London), José Bové, a southern farm activist and leader of the protest became quite a hero with his campaign against American trade sanctions on Rocquefort cheese and other traditional French fare. He was arrested subsequently after leading a squad of farmers that ransacked a McDonald’s site at Millau, in the Aveyron départment. The region had been hit by Washington’s punitive duty on ewe’s cheese, imposed as part of the retaliation for Europe’s ban on hormone-fed American beef. “I am a hostage to global commercialisation” said Mr. Bove at the Montpellier courthouse during his trial. Accordingly so, Guy Kastler, another farmer, said: “We are here to defend the right of people to feed themselves with their own food in their own way against the determination of the United States to impose their way of eating on the whole planet.” (The Times [London], 1998.) Besides this, the farmers also protested against low prices, low-cost industrial methods and genetically modified crops. They feared the increasing domination of big retail distributors like McDonald’s. “José Bové has fulfilled every ecologist's dream: dismantling a McDonalds” [4] said Denis