Are Franchises Driving a New Cultural Revolution?

Western countries are often accused of cultural imperialism by those who value the unique traditions and rich heritage of different countries around the world. I think it is a fair accusation too, but I doubt there is much deliberate intent driving it. It is just a form of cultural Darwinism and we might as well get used to it while trying our best to preserve the best of what each culture has to offer.
We are even doing it to our own cultures. Franchises are among the worst culprits, they take their finely tuned formulas and apply them to everything imaginable.
Remember the great hamburgers that you could buy from Greasy Joe’s not far from your house? Gone. There is a McDonald’s there now.
Remember the children’s classics of Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh? Sterilized, pasteurized and homogenized by Disney.
So imagine that you are totally immersed in your 5,000 year old culture, you have spent your lifetime absorbing all the nuances that you can about your country’s religion, literature, arts, cuisine and then one day you look up and realize that the cloud of dust on the horizon is from all the overseas franchises galloping into town.
What are you going to do?
Try some of that delicious fried chicken, of course! What else can you do?
The major franchise companies tell us that they are acutely aware of local sensitivities and their their strength lies in willingness to adapt and modify themselves by taking on some of the characteristics of the culture they are operating in.
Well… it seems that they do a bit, I suppose… but I wish the traffic was a bit more two-way.
McDonald’s has created a few new products for the Indian market, the Maharaja Mac being one of them.
Don’t you think it would be good for them to offer that on their menu in other countries?
Now, I realize that a customer in the mid-west is not going to learn anything more about India than he already knows just by biting into a Maharaja Mac, but it probably would taste good and at the very least, it should appeal to our sense of fair-play in the culture wars.
Here is one final point to consider: Pizza Hut has not entered the Italian market and I don’t think they ever will. You see there is ALWAYS something we can learn form the Italians, they are the ones that gave us blue jeans.

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