ABSTRACT
The globalization of capitalism’s largest firms—in the automotive sector, in finance, consumer electronics, and the like—is familiar ground to most political economists. The global culture industries, as significant as they are in their own right, take on added significance when one situates them in the larger context of flexible accumulation capitalism. The activities of agribusiness sector increasingly frame the opportunities, limitations, and openings for other firms as globalization proceeds apace. Mergers and acquisitions were not the only means of concentrating global advertising strength; several critical joint ventures, established in the 1980s, added to the reach and diversity of global agency networks. Marketing and advertising construct a discourse and relationality of power—derived from knowledge about, and strategies targeted at, individuals who exist in an asymmetrical relation with the firms and conglomerates that drive the global consumption machine. The globalization affecting other culture industries has impacted advertising in a similar fashion: A handful of firms dominate the world advertising industry.
