Hollywoods Influence in the Middle East - Essay Example

Hollywood films in particular continue to remain a popular form of entertainment worldwide. Hollywood relies on best standards of production and animation techniques while dishing out the films. The fan-following of Hollywood stars spans far beyond the American boundaries. Middle East is certainly no exception. Though the region of Middle East has long been in the mainline media for all the wrong reasons, and at times, the acrimony towards West has found its place in an opposition towards Hollywood movies as well.

But the fact that the craze for Hollywood never diminished, indicates towards the quality and Hollywood movies. At times film critics also accuse some of the latest films of depicting excessive violence in the films, thus affecting the tender minds of the film watchers. Some part of the Middle East in particular has had the misfortune of remaining under violence for the last couple of decades. Therefore, depiction of such violence on the screen invites the accusation of glorifying the violent methods.

But it is equally true that filmmakers too want to 'sell' their products, and they'll try all legal means to market their movies in the best possible manner. Being contemporary in their depiction of the society is one such tried and tested method. Hollywood filmmakers are known to be obsessive researchers as well. They study a set of circumstances, situations and analyze the situation to arrive at some conclusion. At times this kind of inquisitive research leads to interesting findings as well.

For example, Hollywood film director James Cameron stumbled upon the idea of making a film on a tomb found near Jerusalem in 1980 uncovered by Israeli construction workers. During the research, James Cameron came to the conclusion1 that the tomb actually belonged to Jesus and his family. This has generated a healthy debate amongst the historians and archeologists, and the final word is yet to come.Leon Trotsky (1973), a key figure in the famous Bolshevik revolution in Russia once said that cinema is a weapon, which cries out to be used (pp 32).

This observation underlines the importance that films in general and Hollywood in the society. Though the Middle Eastern culture and society has not traditionally been as open as some of the Western nations, but the influence of western culture brought in by the films is quite perceptible. Be it the use of modern equipment, fancy cars, rugged bikes or the relationship amongst young people, the western influence is quite clear. Hollywood movies have certainly helped in shaping the attitude of the masses in general towards such things.

Today we are living in an era of consumerism and globalization. Companies and organizations try their best to influence the buying behavior of the consumers. Globalization has resulted in bringing the world community closer to each other. This has resulted in some sort of uniformity in the marketing communication efforts as well. One of the major areas in marketing is consumer behavior. Middle East has traditionally been known as a potential market with most of the oil rich countries having good amount of money to spend on essential consumer items and other luxuries.

Teams of marketing people from Western nations try out all avenues to reach the potential customer. Hollywood movies are one such very potent element in this marketing strategy. When the screen displays all the features of a product, the movie watchers tend to think about it, and as soon as they find it in the