The Walt Disney Company: An Example of Globalization and Cultural Imperialism

This post will be talking about globalization: reducing differences that exist between nations as far as time, space, and culture. That may sound a bit farfetched, but when you think about it, globalization is happening all around us. For example, did you know there are McDonald's restaurants across the globe? (The ingredients in the burgers vary in each country.) Such aspects can spread worldwide when they're popular enough.

Globalization has good and bad effects. Culture imperialism is the dominance of certain countries in the media, and one of the effects of globalization. America seems to be a very popular subject in the media, so much so that French authorities have fought against English words being integrated into the French language (as stated in Media Now).

It seems that when a foreigner thinks of an American (or European) the first thing they think of are blonde-haired, blue-eyed people. Why would that be? It seems that films often star people of such descriptions, which are then spread to other nations. Even if it's not the most common appearance of actual Americans, other nations would readily identify them as such. Take Disney movies for example: The film The Princess and the Frog was notable as it starred Disney's first African-American "princess". Consider this: the Disney company has been around since the 1930s and The Princess and the Frog was released back in 2009. Even other Disney films that are based on fairy tales such as Snow White and Cinderella opt for Caucasian-looking "princesses".

Now you could say that it was the result of the time period those films were released, but the fact that it took about 70 years to have an African-American character be the star of a Disney movie still stands. Disney is a very global company with many "Disneylands" around the world, yet the majority of Disney characters have been Caucasian. The dominance of this culture in Disney films is a prime example of cultural imperialism.


...to this.




It took that long to get from this...





The Power of Advertising

Billy Mays (who passed away in the summer of '09) was a famous spokesperson who could seemingly sell anything for $19.99. I'm here to talk about an infomercial selling an item Billy Mays was advertising: the Dual Saw. Commercials, like any media you would find on television, needs money to be produced, so most products are unlikely to get full infomercials unless they were guaranteed to sell. That's exactly what the Dual Saw did. In the advertisement, the saw gets a full explanation of its dual-blade technology, various demos demonstrating its versatility, and user testimonies praising the Dual Saw. Watching this ad made me feel that I should buy a Dual Saw if I ever needed to cut anything, the evidence was staggering.

Often, a product is advertised by telling people that they will have a sense of achievement by using it. Perhaps the products can make tasks easier, like dieting without effort or doing errands faster. In this digital age where we're always trying to do things quickly, appealing like this tends to be quite successful.

The Dual Saw seems to cut through anything. With all of the demonstrations of it cutting through many different materials, the audience can't help but think "that would make my life so much easier". And why not? The Dual Saw can help you do DIY projects, install a pet door, break into a safe, and even cut a car in half. The ad seems to tell you "look what you could do if you had a Dual Saw!". That's what makes the commercial so appealing to me, and I don't even do home improvement projects.

Watch the Dual Saw in Action