Unveiling the discursive threshold of a global brand in a local culture

Abstract

With the advent of globalization comes a new form of coexistence between societies, the possibility of which has helped to generate a tangle of cross-cultural field and allowed the establishment of universal values in local sites. This context coupled with mass culture promoted brands to produce complex and global cultural symbols. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s archaeological project, we elected a global brand to undergo a photo-ethnographic case study of mundane daily practices. This process project has enabled us to perform the analysis through an ordering, definition and description work, developed within the discursive field, allowing the results to reveal enunciative descriptions guided by brand marketing practices. Descriptions revealed functions and their relations have allowed us to decipher the rules under which they were governed. The analysis revealed the relational threshold between global and local cultures and allowed us to unveil the links on this discursive web, allowing the understanding of how a transnational brand is established in a local culture reproducing a global culture. In this sense, we point out some ways to reflect on contemporary Western societies.