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.1 Larger migrations of workers for example, Turkish workers to Western2 Europe after World War II provided another source of new ideas, as they3 kept in contact with friends at home.Tourism, particularly from the West4 and Japan, could bring awareness of new styles and values to ordinary people5 in resort areas.International resorts sprang up almost everywhere the climate6 permitted, expressing a new, global quest for pleasure; chains such as the7 European-based Club Med featured standard water sports and cuisine, with8 a modest bow to local attractions.Their activities mainly affected the global9 tourists themselves, but they could have some local impact.Even military40111 action played a role in global consumerism American soldiers spread1 awareness of consumerism wherever they went.American military presence2 in Kuwait in the 1990s, for example, helped inspire new shopping malls3 and a growing interest, against Muslim custom, in tight jeans and cosmetics.44111 By the same token, we have seen that reactions against cultural change 148 Consumerism toward the new centuryoften included efforts to limit international contact in the name of threatenedlocal styles and beliefs.American movies and TV shows helped lead the way in internationalconsumerism.By the 1970s, they stood in second place among Americanexports, with only aircraft ranking before them.Consumer leisure forms inthemselves, American movies and shows also showed the whole world theAmerican consumer lifestyle, prompting often eager response.We have seenthat the internationalization of movies began early.By the early 1920sAmerican films controlled 95 percent of the Australian market, and loomedalmost as large in Latin America.Americans were seen as holding the secretof making films that appealed to the masses, and glamorizing a middle-class, youthful consumerist lifestyle was part of this secret.United Statesfilms gained over European offerings in the Middle East because they werecheaper and more action-oriented.Hollywood became the internationalmovie capital, shaper of international images of beauty and sexuality, fromthat point onward.The later surge of slickly-produced American TV showssimply intensified this trend.American pop culture icons such as BritneySpears served as international beauty standards, inspiring imitation in fashionand cosmetics from Russia to Madagascar.Other institutions attached themselves to the emergence of the world sfirst international popular culture, based around consumerist leisure andimagery.Beauty contests spread, from their origin in the United States inthe 1920s.Within the United States, ethnic groups, such as ChineseAmericans, began to sponsor shows to demonstrate that they too shared thenational lifestyle.Foreign competitions gained ground, featuring womenwho displayed fashionable bodies but also promoted stylish clothing, music,and other consumer attributes.Products associated with movies won inter-national appeal.Disney figures such as Mickey Mouse attached children tointernational consumerism with toys and T-shirts.The spread of McDonald s was another American-derived symbol ofinternational consumerism, touting unfamiliar food products such as thehamburger and an unusually rapid eating style accompanied by ever-smilingservice.McDonald s began in Illinois, in 1955, building on the precedentof smaller fast-food chains.The company catered to the traditional Americaninterest in eating fast, adding a family atmosphere and typical Americanfood products.International expansion came quickly, first in Canada andPuerto Rico in 1967.From that point to 1988, the company entered anaverage of two new countries a year, and then speeded up in the 1990s.By 1998 it operated in 109 countries overall.Western Europe, New Zealand,and Australia were obvious targets, though McDonald s and its Americancounterparts and local look-alikes surprised observers with their success intraditional centers of gourmet cuisine such as France.By 1990, 26 percentof all restaurant meals in France occurred in fast-food outlets, with youthful Consumerism in the contemporary world 1491111 eaters leading the charge.The company won quick success in Japan, where2 it gained its largest foreign audience; makadonaldo first opened in Tokyo s3 world famous Ginza, already known for cosmopolitan department stores, in41971.McDonald s entry into the Soviet Union, in 1990, was a major sign5of the ending of Cold War rivalries and the growing Russian passion for6Western consumer goods.The restaurants, which had to organize special7training to create smiling personnel, won massive patronage despite (by8Russian standards) very high prices.9The parade of international consumer goods was a long one.Barbie dolls1011won a global audience.T-shirts with real or imagined American university1labels were all the rage.American-style Christmas trappings, including gift2giving, caught on not only in countries of Christian origin, such as France,311that had not previously celebrated the holiday commercially, but also Muslim4Istanbul.Northern Mexico picked up American Halloween trick-or-treating,5though elsewhere the more religious celebration of All Saints Day held6firmer
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