We westerners have zero tolerance of other cultures. Consider the reaction to Asian advertising whenever it rears its head in these parts: few Cannes-goers could forget the soccer hooligan-like booing of the bizarre "Belly Button Face" at last year's international adfest. Sure, you might reasonably argue that the ad was crap, but clearly domestic viewers didn't think so. Our dislike of the unknown is also the reason why the work of BBDO, Bangkok - which clinched awards at both the One Show and Clios in May with Unif Green Tea "Worms" - was received with slight derision - while DDB's "Mr. Silent Killer Gas Passer" for Bud Light got roars of approval.

I wouldn't have thought much about this if I hadn't listened to a Clio speech by Kirk Souder, ECD at Publicis/Hal Riney, SF. At first, the philosophy of his presentation - "Is Advertising Eating Culture?" - was a bit too 'let's-all-hold-hands-and-chant-kumbaya' for my taste. The former partner at Ground Zero began by explaining he'd taken two years off work to "find himself" and travel the world with his family. Two years? Clearly advertising pays way too much.

That said, I ultimately wound up sympathizing with Souder, who believes cultural identities are getting ground up by the western marketing machine. He recounted his journey to a remote Thai island, where he encountered a native boy with a "sports shoe" logo tattooed on his chest. Initially comforted to see the familiar symbol, he later found himself jolted and disheartened. He says we should attempt to maintain diversity, and indeed, I can see that goal might be somewhat thwarted by having the swoosh stamped across the torsos of the world.

While I agree, however, that globalization should not equal homogenization, it's not all push marketing - some of it is pull. In other words, it won't be easy to wrest western icons out of the hands of those eager to surround themselves in what they perceive as status symbols.

Take China as an example. USA Today ran a big piece (which I stumbled across, coincidentally, the day after Souder's speech) about how a new era of affluence and greed is giving rise to "rich man's diseases" - namely, obesity and alcoholism, conditions that the country's already strained healthcare system can ill support. Since the 1960s - and particularly Deng Xiaoping's reforms in 1978 - Beijing and other Chinese cities have transformed from predominantly agricultural and beset by famine, into cityscapes replete with gleaming skyscrapers and beset by pollution, McDonald's and Microsoft logos. Of course after centuries of hardship, the Chinese are only too happy to embrace western ideals in all shapes and forms - but the writer's point was, capitalism is as deadly as communism in the end. The difference is, we're being killed by kindness.

How does advertising play into all this? Well, I don't expect my readers to raise their collective consciousness by skipping work for two years and then getting preachy about it afterwards. But if at this year's Cannes fest you feel like booing an ad you don't get, stop and think about the message you're sending. [For our Cannes predictions and Vice Guide to the Riviera, see pg. 36.]

Alison Eastwood

Editor