The Global Flow of Visual Culture

Cultural Imperalism

Cultural imperialism is an old phenomenon about sending country’s values in different nations. There are several ways to do it e.g. tv, radio, and internet. The whole world has become global village. For instance, American ideals of equality, freedom, and democracy now available in the world may give more freedom to women, children, and to minorities in all cultures, and will promote anti-racist, anti-sexist or anti-authoritarian messages and regimes. Examples to discuses cultural imperialism are Iraq, and Afghanistan. Setting up democracy in both the countries based on American ideals of equality was not an easy task for US. Starting off with President Bush who had a lot of obstacles in his way to make both the countries democratic. Some how he got succeed to built a democratic government in Iraq and helped the locals to elect their Leader democratically but in Afghanistan US values of equality and freedom to women has not found its place and it is still not being accepted as life style.

The U.S. and Soviet Union are known for their cultural imperialism that is a way for the countries to create an “non-invasive presence” in other countries. Although they are known for these types of tactics other countries are also using these types of media implementations as well. An example of this was the hit BBC television show “the Office”. It received acclaim in England and then the show was replicated in the U.S. with new stars and additional story lines to fit the entertainment ideas of a U.S. audience.

Cultural imperialism creates a line of presence to other countries that can be used to help people see a countries view that they are not native to. It can play both ways, but is often applied by a country with more power trying to impose a view and way of life on another country.

Global Niche Markets

Coca Cola achieves success in global niche marketing by featuring people from the culture the company wishes to reach and by using pop culture references from the culture. We think Coca cola is successful in many of its attempts at global marketing because often the commercials can be understand without knowing the language or the reference being made. Typical Coca Cola commercial show the consumer finding refreshment or relief in the drink.

In our first video, which is from Lebanon, this is done very well. All the consumers are saying "brrrr" to let the audience know that the drink is cool, refreshing and fun to drink. It's a great commercial that can be done throughout the world. All the Coke corporation has to do is hire new actors to reflect the country the commercial appears in.

The second commercial we found does a very good job of targeting a specific culture, which happens to be America. The commercial uses The Godfather to get the attention of the American audience. This commercial wouldn't translate well among cultures, but it is a good example of taking a culturally significant media and using it to target a specific group of people.

The second commercial.

Global Brands

Our example of a global brand is Subway.

The company has technically been successful because it has entered the global

market, but Subway might not maintain that success because of an inability to adapt to cultural tastes.

In Pakistan, for example, Subway uses the same recipes as it does in America, which are very plain and lack a lot of spice. Subway is not as popular in Pakistan as it is in America and we believe this could be because food in Pakistan traditionally has spices in it.

Meanwhile, McDnonalds, in addition to its regular items, offers special menu items that meet the needs of the country it operates within. It is well known that McDonalds is extremely successful in the global market and we believe that Subway would do better if it followed McDonald's example.

Scientific Looking in Cultural Contexts

Discussion #1

http://www.fitsugar.com/Digital-Body-Morphing-Tool-Cool-2540620

How does the image or media convey the idea that the human body can be treated in the same manner as digital systems?

The article discusses how Michelle Trachtenberg used a site called weightview.com to create an altered image of herself in a photo of her on the red carpet. This article appeared in Life and Style Magazine and discussed how she was able to create a visually slimmer version of herself knocking off fifty pounds with the usage of the body altering tools available on the site. The article continues to point out how this tool could create negative effects also, because woman may use the tool to see themselves “fifty pounds lighter” and create a personal goal to actually achieve this type of weight lose, even if it in an unhealthy amount of weight to lose. This digital imaging sets goals for people that may not be healthy, and these types of goals may not fully be believable without the assistance of such digital altering tools.

Do you feel that the image / media is objective, or is it using cultural expectations of scientific media to advance some initiative?

I feel that the media is objective because it discusses the pro of weightview.com, which is that the tool can be used to see yourself slimmer and could create positive expectations and goals for weight lose, but it also discusses the negativity of creating unrealistic weight loss goals for people that are already very slim. In ways it has pseudo references to scientific media in the essence that it implies that the weightview.com tool could create motivation for weight loss that would include dieting and exercise which entails scientific processes and comprehensions to effectively work.

Discussion #2

What are the effects of this type of advertisement speaking directly to consumers rather than medical personnel?

For the past couple of decades pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to market their products directly to the consumers and since the FDA is also relaxed about this advertisement method, the spending on such promotion has increased. The ads suggest the use of various prescription drugs for just about any medical condition that the viewer might experience. It is irresponsible of pharmaceutical companies to encourage self-diagnosis and unnecessary medicating. Practice among pharmaceutical companies in the use of online video and websites aims to raise awareness of a particular disease or condition often without clear disclosure of sponsor relationships. Designed as educational sites, where individuals can share their experiences with various treatments for certain health issues sites such as cymbalta.com or viagra.com are also useful to pharmaceutical companies. Perhaps most alarmingly, marketers have developed applications that allow companies to eavesdrop and analyze conversations by and among health consumers, taking advantage of users’ networks of friends to orchestrate peer-to-peer brand promotion. These new surveillance tools monitor conversations among social network users to identify what is being said about a particular issue or product. Increasingly, advertisers are using Facebook’s marketing apparatus, which is largely invisible to its users to develop a brand presence on its pages so companies can strongly connect to the social communications of a very large pool of consumers.

How do the abstract promises made by the pharmaceutical companies impact both the people they claim to help as well as medical personnel?

The advertisement of prescription drugs to the consumer and to the general public creates a need for a problem that isn't really there. By asking questions that are so vague (i.e., are you tired, not feeling like your old self, etc.) a consumer will ponder these thoughts until they have convinced themselves that there really is something wrong with them. This isn't fair to the consumer as well as to the medical doctors that are feeling the pressures of prescribing things that aren't needed.

Is promoting the use of drugs outside of a medical context ethical? Why or why not?

The viewpoints about the use of these ads are divided. Some feel that the ads provide medical education for the public, which may not be provided in another way and show the viewer other options that are available for their illness. Others feel that is unethical because the ads are encouraging people to use the drugs and request them from their doctor when they might not actually need that particular prescription. In addition, some doctors receive financial benefits for prescribing certain drugs when they could and should use something more suited to their patient.

Postmodernism In Film

The Truman Show



This movie revolves around a man that is trapped in a real life reality show and he is unaware of it. Reality shows are very popular today and feature many of things that happen in the Truman Show movie. For example, there is product placement, hidden cameras and unscripted scripts. According to our text, "Practices of Looking", postmodernism inspires artists to create products that allow them to examine their own position in the work that they create. A director is a type of artist and in The Truman Show, the director plays a very significant role over the everyday details of Truman's life. All actors in the show have a headset and the director is often show giving them cues and direction, including the instructions to successfully use product placement. This movie is written in a way that forces the audience to question whether directors really have the best intentions for the art they are producing and also question the commercialization of movies today.

Back to the Future, III



In Back to the Future III Marty McFly goes back in time to save his friend, the Doc, from being shot by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. In order to save Doc from dying, Marty has to work with the Doc's 1955 self. There are so many postmodern aspects of postmodernism in time travel movies and this one is a classic. One of the best parts of the movie that gives a slap in the face to time travel is when the Doc is actually slapped in the face by Clara, the woman he is seeing. He tells her that he is a time traveler and she doesn't believe him. She slaps him in the face and says that he is just saying that so he can get out of seeing her. In a lot of movies about time travel, the fact that it exists is just accepted. But in this film, it is not. Clara has a reaction that people would have in real life. In addition, there are tons of pop culture references because Marty is always trying to be clever in the movie and the people he encounters don't know what he's talking about. There is one scene that occurs in a "western" setting and Marty is doing the Moonwalk. That is a very good example of postmodernism in a film.

Pulp Fiction



Pulp Fiction is a good example of a movie that uses a lot of pop culture references and a lot of over the top antics to alert you to the fact that the movie is indeed a movie. The things that happen in the movie are so unrealistic to the genre of the film - Jerry Seinfield makes a cameo appearance, a girl's dress is blown by a gust of wind in the middle of a bar - that it is clear the writers are making fun of the genre that they participate in. So while the movie makes fun of gangster crime movies, they are meanwhile creating one. And Pulp Fiction becomes one of the most celebrated movies of its time.

Borat

The Trailer

The plot of Borat is that a man from a village in Kazakhstan goes on a trip to America to report on "the greatest country in the world" for a TV show in his home country. The star of the show, Sacha Baron Cohen, is British and throughout the movie he makes fun of stereotypes about everything from small countries to the "greatest country in the world", America. Postmodern is expressed in this movie by the actor making very outlandish statements, performing ridiculous stunts and there are numerous "gross out" moments. Obviously, all of these moments makes the audience aware that this is a movie and that it's not serious, yet the statements that are made do poke fun at things people actually believe about the countries Borat visits. This is one way for Cohen to force people to reflect on society, which is the goal of postmodern art.

Postmodernism and Master Narratives

1.


The first example we have that critiques a master narrative is the television show titled “Sister Wives” that is broadcasted on TLC. This show stars a polygamous relationship with one husband and four wives and aims to offer a glimpse into their everyday lives. I feel that this show critiques the master narrative of monogamous relationships by comparing the problems of a regular marriage to a polygamous relationship. The standard in the U.S. is a monogamous relationship, but with the openness of society today more alternative lifestyles are becoming accepted. The purpose of this show is to educate society on the subculture of polygamous relationships to potentially increase their acceptance. Currently polygamous marriages are illegal so by participating in the show, this family is putting their family at risk of scrutiny. They try to showcase their values of believing in God and supporting their children to try to have regular families feel as though they can relate to them. The show even discusses the benefits of a multi-parent family by suggesting that the children involved have a better parenting situation because there are more people available to pay attention to them and help raise them.

2.

Religulous is a documentary movie that stars Bill Maher where he questions religion. He travels the world and discusses religion with various people of many different backgrounds. The movie tries to identify each individuals one God. It also questions who's God is "the one God". In doing so the movie analyzes the master narrative of religion. This type of movie would not have been able to be made or viewed in the past. Since the postmodern era religion has slowly been questioned and this practice has been more widely accepted.

The Commodity Self, Culture Jamming and Marketing Coolness

1. What is the commodity self and commodity culture? Find an example of the commodity self or commodity culture used in a movie, a television ad or an internet ad. Explain the commodity culture that the ad/movie targets.

The commodity self is the part of our identity in which we express ourselves through commercial products and aim to associate the things we own or use with the type of person we want to be. The stronger our commodity self is, the more we tend to lose our real self because we become buried in tangible items.

A commodity culture is one that chooses to represent its values through products and tangible items. The more the people of a culture identify with consumer items, the more the culture is represented by consumer items.

The example we found of commodity culture was the product placement scene in "Wayne's World". The purpose of this clip is to portray cultural satire in the way that our culture uses product placement. It seems that almost all forms of media are using products to portray a specific image. In this scene the two main characters are verbally expressing the importance of not "selling out" while using a variety of name brand products crammed in a minute long scene.

2. Marketing Coolness? Find an example of an ad that uses a counterculture or anti-consumerism to sell it's product. Explain the approach of the example.

The ads that we are choosing to represent anti-consumerism are the PETA anti-fur ads. Many of the ads feature celebrities posing almost nude with the statement, " I'd rather go naked" than to wear fur. They are using the theme of "sex sells" to encourage people to support PETA. By using popular celebrities that people look up to, PETA is giving consumers an image to follow.

3. What is an Anti-Ad? What is Culture Jamming? Find an example and explain the strategy of the ad.

Anti-ads and culture jamming take place when people use a pre-existing ad or concept and change it so that it contradicts the original. The example that we chose are the "Truth" ads that are anti-smoking campaigns. These ads offer a glimpse into what it would really be like if tobacco companies told the truth about their products. This ad shows the "cool" cowboys talking about the real consequences of smoking. The strategy is to take an ad that people are already familiar with and alter it to portray the "scary" truth of the product.