America™

With the majority of this weeks discussion focusing on the McDonald's and Starbucks brands taking over the world, I thought it interesting to further look at the idea of branding--and expand the aforementioned brands to be defined as mere branches on the tree of the "America" brand. Sturkin and Cartwright discuss the Starbucks, McDonald's, Coca Cola, and CNN as major players in global visual culture. While the first three are stationed or distributed at various locations all around the world, CNN can be seen in many countries as well, yet all of these brands are originated in the United States.

There are similar experiences between nations when consuming these products: a glass of Coke served with a Big Mac (or it's regional counterpart) elicits an awareness of "America" in eaters; Anderson Cooper's image is a product of "America" as well. These products may be in various countries, but they all are reminiscent of the U.S. Likewise, when Americans consume these same products we are reminded, even prided on the fact they are American products.

Starbucks, on the other hand, has a different effect. When Americans drink a venti caramel macchiato we tend to think Italian. But I would argue people in other countries think America. Yes, the drinks may sound Italian in name but Europeans are not fooled and can see through the supersized drinks masquerading as exotic flavors. They see straight the Starbucks vernacular to the original Starbucks located in Seattle, or more importantly in America.

Disgruntled Italians everywhere scoff at our frappachinos and machiattos, but nonetheless Starbucks (and McDonald's and Coca Cola and CNN) are golden in the international market. Although some brands do offer unique products to parts of the world that may otherwise not be introduced to, say, the McNugget, these brands do not generally offer anything really new. What they do offer is America, which may be not be ideal to everyone... but the thousands of locations and millions of consumers can't refute the fact that America is a wanted entity (I'll leave it to the other blog posts to decide if this is a good or bad thing), even if people can only get it through their daily coffee fix.