Page 88 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Brand ng the Globe |

At the Shijingshan Amusement Park, which recently opened in the suburbs
of Beijing, children are greeted by costumed figures like a large duck and a hap-
pily waving lady mouse. Are these Daffy Duck and Minnie Mouse? “No,” says
the management of the park, “the characters in our park just look a bit similar”
to those in Disneyland.
Huge markets have sprung up in all the large cities in China selling fake
branded items like Gucci bags, Mont Blanc pens, and pirated CDs and DVDs.
The rise of consumerism and the Chinese ability to copy branded icons has
strained ties between the wealthy countries in the West and China. The U.S.
trade deficit with China, for example, soared to U.S. $232.5 billion in 2006.
Thus, global advertising’s success in creating new markets for branded West-
ern consumer goods has created eager new consumers in the developing world,
as well as opportunities for local entrepreneurs to capitalize on the rising tide
of capitalism by producing an endless array of “fake global brands” for local
consumption.

ThE risE oF gLoBaL mEDia
The past few decades have also seen unprecedented growth in the global
media to serve the needs of the global advertising industry. Western magazines
like Elle, Vogue, Maxim, and Seventeen, for example, are now available in “local
country” editions worldwide.
The unintended side effect of the growth in global media has also been to
further stimulate consumer culture. Herman and McChesney (1997) point
out that “the globalizing media treat audiences as consumers, not as citizens,
and they are most attentive to those with high incomes.” This, they show, has
led to the erosion of the social and economic development role of the media in
many developing nations. In country after country, commercial satellite and
cable channels have captured the wealthier, urban viewers. These competitive
market forces drive government media channels to cut back on “positive ex-
ternalities of public service” and “at the same time give full play to audience-
attracting programs featuring sex and violence.” According to Herman and
McChesney, the media in India, for example, “are being integrated into a global
system that caters to those with effective demand and encourages them to want
and to spend more.” These authors go on to point out that India’s globalizing
media and the advertising community are promoting “an elitist consumerist
culture within the larger society of what is still a Third World country” (p. 188).
Their observations can be applied to many other countries in the developing
world.
Thus, the linkages between the multinational corporations, global advertis-
ing, and the growth of commercial media channels are all interrelated. Agen-
cies continue to lobby for media channels in which to advertise their corporate
clients’ products and services. The weight of evidence supports the contention
that multinational corporations and global advertising interests throughout
the world have clamored for the creation of commercial broadcasting to re-
place the existing public service systems.