The Advertising Industry and Globalization

Paper Summary:

This paper is an international political economy examination of the role of advertising on the promotion of globalization. The author theorizes about the role advertising plays in the creation of global consciousness and how they create consumption, leading to globalization. It is concluded that through the advertising industry, we can both see the progression of globalization and observe the process in action.

From the Paper:

""Where's the beef?" These three words catapulted Wendy's into the North American media spotlight during the mid-1980s. As a direct result, their revenues increased by 31% and their profits by 24%. "Where's the beef?" became so ubiquitous that vice-presidential candidate Walter Mondale used it during the 1984 US presidential campaign. Such is the power of advertising, and as such, the power of the advertising industry. An arbiter of the "cool", the "useful", and the "now"; the power of the advertising industry is arguably a reflection of the increasing importance of "the sell" in modern society. Major daily newspapers devote pages to the latest (and greatest) deals, mergers, and acquisitions of major corporations. Business news broadcasts on radio and television, relay these same deeds with all the excitement of sporting events. Politics itself is increasingly being "sold" to the public. The "packaging" of political ideas into crisp soundbites, political candidates into ideal persons and the "spinning" of issues in order to get the public to accept (or buy into) a particular candidate or side of an argument, has increased greatly in the past twenty years. The advertising industry has become increasingly forthright in telling the public that its endeavoring to sell them products, and even "spin doctors" as they are colloquially known, have stepped into the fore of the political arena. There are magazines devoted to praising, criticizing, and poking fun at advertising tactics. In the political arena, there is an increased effort to not only recognize the "spin" of an issue, but to also anticipate what form the spin may take on certain questions. In this environment, the advertising industry has become an increasingly relevant factor in everyday life and, concomitantly, in the study of international political economy (IPE). Not because of the obvious fact that many of the larger advertising firms are transnational in nature and therefore, directly within the IPE's sphere of study. Rather, the industry's relevance stems from the fact that its purpose, talent, and trade is persuasion ?"persuasion that is increasingly being carried out internationally. This paper will argue that one such consequence has been, and continues to be, the perpetuation of the process of globalization. By globally executing marketing and branding campaigns, the advertising industry furthers the process of globalization by leading to the formation of multiple global consciousnesses along the lines of consumption " consumption that has played a role in generating."

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