Dufort 1 Jessica Dufort Expository Writing 355:101 KO Paper 1 Final Draft Tiziano Cherubini 9/15/2015 Transculturalism and the Influence of Other Marketing Strategies on Culture Cultures today are already rich by means of their original cultural ingredients. In order to change, one must be forcibly pressed against by the unessential external cookie-cutter influence of other countries. Long ago these shapes were forced with religion and Westernized notions of civilization as seen through the horrific stories of the Middle Passage, later through time cultural change was present again through government and economy in India, and once again through educational practices in Jamaica. Today, Ethan Watters clearly argues in “The Mega Marketing of Depression in Japan” that a culture can be reshaped, influenced, and colonized by anything, such as media and marketing techniques. “Transculturalism”, as googled, is often defined as the “seeing of oneself in the other.” When used by Watters, it becomes the false term used to mask the harsh reality of the cultural exploitation employed by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline upon the country of Japan in order to “make a hit” out of their serotonin reuptake drug Paxil. Watters, using selective diction, a voice of irony, and a well constructed plot, demonstrates a modern day example of the effect of external influences on culture using the unethical marketing of depression. The middle passage is perhaps the largest example of past cultural colonization. During this time, westernized concepts of Christianity and civilization were forced onto Africans in order to hide the truth behind the approximately 20 million slaves taken from their homes. Dufort 2 Jessica Dufort Expository Writing 355:101 KO Paper 1 Final Draft Tiziano Cherubini 9/15/2015 Following this there was the changing of India’s business culture imposed by the British, in the self-beneficial means of making it easier to do business with the resourcefully wealthy country. In 1834, British colonists sought to alter the facets in which Jamaicans pursued educations. They imposed their own native variation and form of education onto the Jamaicans as a “way to integrate ex-slaves into the colonial economy and to ensure a peaceful lower class” (Morrison & Milner 1995). Although displayed as actions of social interest, the cultural changes posed by Britain were not of importance to the countries of India, nor Jamaica. It also certainly was not necessary for the region of western Africa to which the middle passage occurred. Past examples of cultural change depict colonization as rather the imposition of one culture’s self upon another. As told by Dr. Laurence Kirmayer, Watters writes that the men he encounters in the conference titled “Transcultural Issues in Depression and Anxiety” were “highly paid private scholars who could hold their own in the most sophisticated discussion of postcolonial theory…”(515). By choosing to use the word “postcolonial,” Watters sets up an extreme parallel to the colonization depicted in Chinua Achebe’s postcolonial work Things Fall Apart, the reaction to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In Heart of Darkness Conrad speaks of “white man’s burden,” being the difficulty received as a reaction to the genocide-induced means of colonization that the British believed to be the movement towards civilization needed by the people of Africa. In response, Chinua Achebe narrates the civilized order that preceded the Dufort 3 Jessica Dufort Expository Writing 355:101 KO Paper 1 Final Draft Tiziano Cherubini 9/15/2015 unnecessary cultural exploitation that Conrad claims to be “the white man’s burden.” As history has shown, civilization became the codename for mass slavery and the kidnapping of millions of native Africans. As history repeats, GlaxoSmithKline markets the term of “transculturalism” to change the cultural perception of depression and benefit at the hands of many ill Japanese people. The problem GlaxoSmithKline sought to resolve was never a matter of Japan’s mental wellbeing. Their motive was instead completely selfish, like that of British colonists. In order to best fulfill their needs of self-interest, GlaxoSmithKline imposed their own cultural definition of depression upon the lives of the Japanese. The result—a success. With a westernized cultural story, GlaxoSmithKline was able to shift the public perception of depression among the Japanese. The term depression itself entered the Japanese lexicon, thus showing the extent to which external forces like GlaxoSmithKline can have on another country’s culture. Depression through Watters’ tone is interchangeable with owning property, striking oil, winning the lottery, and finishing a puzzle. Watters, paraphrasing Kirmayer, stated that the practices taken by GlaxoSmithKline were “the medical equivalent of what real estate agents do to sell vacation timeshares” (514). The leaders of the British pharmaceutical company dined and pampered their guests in hopes of furthering their scope and solidifying their drug. Kirmayer, through Watters, also stated that “GlaxoSmithKline needed help solving a cultural puzzle that might be worth billions of dollars” (516). Kirmayer begins to understand that he is invited to the Dufort 4 Jessica Dufort Expository Writing 355:101 KO Paper 1 Final Draft Tiziano Cherubini 9/15/2015 conference to aid GlaxoSmithKline in toying with the establishment of a country’s culture in order to attain revenue. Watters’ usage of the word puzzle shows just how little it takes for external influences to makes changes towards other cultures. The detailed description of how luxurious the conference was shows the method GlaxoSmithKline used to blind the influential clinicians and researchers, allowing the pharmaceutical giant to control the strings of Japan’s culture on depression. Watters shows that cultures are extremely malleable when faced with outside influence and clearly explains the troubles that may arise along the way. “The major problem GlaxoSmithKline faced was that the Japanese psychiatrists and mental health professionals still translated the diagnosis of ‘depression’ as utsubyÔ , and in the mind of many Japanese that word retained its association with incurable and inborn depression of psychotic proportions”(524). The company, skilled at crisis management, then sought to alter the connotation Japan had with the illness. They pitched the phrase “kokoro no kaze,” meaning “a cold of the soul.” In 2013, Japanese writer Kaori Shoji stated that, “The Japanese define depression as ‘the cold of the soul’”(The Japan Times). Just a year after GlaxoSmithKline launches Paxil CR in January of 2012, depression became a mainstream word in the Japanese vocabulary. The fact that GlaxoSmithKline was successfully able to pitch the idea of depression as being just “a cold of the soul” shows their permanent shaping of Japan’s perception of the disease. Watters’ mention Dufort 5 Jessica Dufort Expository Writing 355:101 KO Paper 1 Final Draft Tiziano Cherubini 9/15/2015 of the renaming of depression, not only shows the extent to which outside influences play on culture but also shows the speed at which media and marketing can force a culture to change forever. Uncoincidentally, the essay “The Mega Marketing of Depression in Japan,” begins with a quote from David Healy, a psychiatrist skilled in the topic of antidepressants. It reads “one of the chilling things about these events, whether a puzzle or a scandal, is how a very few people in key positions, can determine the course of events and shape the consciousness of a generation”(513). Following this Watters, through use of precise word choice, tone, and plot construction distinctly executes his argument about the malleability of one culture as the trivial result of another’s influence. Long ago as depicted through postcolonial works like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the process of replacing a culture’s explanatory model, and redrawing the lines of their normal behaviors came with a great battle. As shown through colonization with countries like India and Jamaica, the altering of one’s culture was a strenuous and long task. In “The Mega Marketing of Depression in Japan,” Ethan Watters’ essay shows just how quickly and to what extent a company like GlaxoSmithKline can deploy marketing techniques to reshape the cultural perception of depression in Japan. No matter how rich a country’s cultural ingredients may be, when pressed against by the cookie-cutter influences of other countries such as Britain, the end Dufort 6 Jessica Dufort Expository Writing 355:101 KO Paper 1 Final Draft Tiziano Cherubini 9/15/2015 result is unnecessarily altered. Watters makes a great job at showing just how fast this change has recently taken place, as David Healy comments, it is in fact “chilling”. Dufort 7 Jessica Dufort Expository Writing 355:101 KO Paper 1 Final Draft Tiziano Cherubini 9/15/2015 Works Cited ● "Dr. David Healy." Dr David Healy. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. <http://davidhealy.org/>. ● "Mike Mills Looks at Depression in Japan | The Japan Times." Japan Times RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. <http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/10/22/general/mikemills-looks-at-depression-in-japan/#.Ve5adPnBzGd>. ● Miller, Richard E., and Kurt Spellmeyer. The New Humanities Reader: First-year Writing. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print. ● 0'Meally-Nelson, Blossom. "Understanding the Jamaican Cultural Environment." (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. <http://education.fiu.edu/jamaica/docs/understanding_the_jamaican_culture.pdf>. ● "Jamaica - History Background." - Education, System, Schools, and Colonial. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. <http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/725/JamaicaHISTORY-BACKGROUND.html>. ● "The Middle Passage." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html>.
