On Wed, 24 Jul 2002 09:59:37 +0200 Peter Gannushkin wrote:
Hello Skip,
Even though I don't think there is a real problem in American culture spreading, I have to disagree with you about forcing. It is quite obvious that American corporations use all their facilities to spread to markets other than American. It doesn't really matter is it KFC "restaurant", Madonna's music or Hollywood movie. The methods and results are basically the same: huge investments in ads, reduced prices in the beginning, prepaid critics' articles (so called hidden advertisement) and then big sales and dominating among domestic products, which often cannot compete with lower quality but bigger money American ones.
This is quite naive and, as usual, amplifies the victimized aspect of the problem (people have no choice, are forced fed, brainwashed, etc (put your favorite conspiracy theory here)). There are situations where ad campaigns can successfully brainwash people, but most of the time the product succeeds because it fulfills a need (whereas you like it or not, such as people's fascination for trash on TV). Ad budget in our field (the music we cover) is almost useless since each product is different (I mean, you don't choose Wynton over John because Wynton's record is $1 less) and the ad budget would cost too much in regard of the targetted audience, anyway. I can tell you that the success of Fast food chains in France was a big surprise for everybody, and there was no big budget ad campaign brainwashing to induce people to go buy a BigMac. The cases that you describe (where the need is forced fed) is almost an exception (it might work at first due to the thrill of novelty, but if not backed up by something more solid, it never last). Maybe your problem is that you don't understand (or don't want to) people's need at large. Do you really believe that Derek Bailey backed up by Turner could fill arenas? Do you feel that French kids who go to MacDonald are not aware of the existence of French cuisine? Maybe it is better to use conspiracy theories instead of facing the fact that we are (specially when obscessed with obscure forms of arts) clueless (at best), or ashamed (at worst) of people's need at large. Patrice (who's pretty sure that at one time his defence of American culture at large will be interpreted as defence of the current administration...).