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Day by day the corporate world seems to expand, overflow, to fill every seamless nook and cranny nationwide, selling every product know to man-kind. Advertisements are everywhere and impossible not to see, TV, radio, billboards, fliers, signs/posters. Just the other day I was at the dentist office sitting in the reclining chair with the hygienist cleaning away at my teeth, when she lowered the head of the chair down and to my surprise there I was looking straight up at another advertisement. The ZOOM teeth whitening procedure was now available at my very own dentists office! There on the ceiling was a massive poster with attractive couples and best friends all with fresh, gleaming, white as can be smiles staring back at me. I believe that all of this advertising feeds the American culture of BUY BUY BUY, SHOP SHOP SHOP! The movie, The Corporation, focused on many ideas that deal with advertising and branding for the consumeristic American culture. I believe that the corporations have to keep expanding in order to keep their market, there always has to be new, fresh ideas keeping the advertising in the American culture and the advertising also has to marketed for their specific targets.

One of the ways that advertising fits in with the American culture is that they target children. The youth of America is a giant target because they also have to become consumers like previous generations to keep the cycle going. The impact of advertising for children is becoming stronger and stronger as technology becomes more advanced. Everything is thought out how to brainwash children into getting their products. If the youth does not become consumers when they are young, then when they get older and have purchasing power and are not purchasing, what would corporations do? The movie The Corporation shows all the work that goes into marketing for children; how many studies are done, what draws kids attention, the use of child psychologists...the list goes on and on, but it is very clear that in order to keep the idea of the consumeristic American culture, it is essential that you must convince the youth that they to buy what they see advertised.

The other idea that the movie, The Corporation, showed was the need to expand companies and make more product, and to out beat products with newer products. The movie showed that so many of America's brand names are not made in America, they are made in places where they can get cheap labor, so they can make more output for a fraction of the price than it would cost them here in the U.S. The corporations are not thinking about anyone besides themselves, total disregard to everything except what will benefit the corporation. In terms of culture this is relevant because this idea quickly resonates within the purchaser, that nothing matters except wearing that brand and buying those certain products, with no care about how the product was made or what the company that makes it stands for. It is a harsh reality that revolves around the idea of more more more, "keeping up with the Jones'. "

In conclusion, I feel that the movie, The Corporation, dealt with many issues surrounding the American culture. The two examples I found that demonstrated this were first, advertising to children and hooking them into wanting their products and teaching them to think with a consumeristic brain continuing the cycle of the buying and shopping culture we have created, and second by showing how corporations branch out and create the mentality of more is better, whether it is right or wrong.