Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Communications - Mass Media, grade: 1,7, University of Leicester (University of Leicester - Centre for Mass Communication Research), course: Advertising, Culture and Communication, language: English, abstract: Urban dwellers in the Western world have witnessed a change of their cityscapes recently. Small independent stores, restaurants and coffee bars have been replaced by stores of multinational companies, such as Tesco, McDonald's, Burgerking, Starbucks, H&M and The Gap. No matter if you are exploring the city centre of Leicester, London or Hamburg, you find more and more branches of large-scale business companies, attempting to attract consumers with their big, bright logos. The same process can be found in the media - global brands such as Hewlett-Packard and Coca Cola advertise all around the globe, or in terms of Barnet et al (1995: p. 164): "Marlboro country is everywhere". While the unification of city centres has been much-discussed, further questions need to be elaborated on: In how far are these phenomena results of globalisation? Which consequences do they have for life in Western societies? Is there a global homogenisation of culture, and if so, to what extent? Which role does advertising play in this process? These and other questions are discussed in this paper.