By only watching foreign movies in which the characters mention American movie stars, I am occasionally reminded of the powerful influence that American movies have had on colonizing the minds of people over much of the world. Hollywood has not only been a source of entertainment for Americans, but has been a powerful instrument to infect the minds of people all over the world with American values of consumption founded on the commodification of everything. As such Hollywood has functioned like religious missionaries to indoctrinate people with the values of the colonial powers, the leading capitalist nations, to prepare them for the invasion of their homelands by corporations seeking to exploit their markets, their cheap labor, and their resources.
Britisher Todhunter describes the end process in India where he resides. The dominant culture of India now reflects the same culture as found in the US. Indians are rapidly accommodating themselves to the neoliberal agenda as recently manifested by the election of a neoliberal candidate for prime minister.
...the underlying aim of celebrity product endorsement is to bind the public to a product and by implication to the company behind it and ultimately the ideology of the system, so-called economic neo-liberalism. Positive notions about ‘individual freedom’ (via consuming) and the market constituting the best method for supplying human needs are being constantly and implicitly reinforced. Today, this is what the celebrity is ultimately endorsing. This is what they are selling their souls for.
