Where Everything Fights Everything
British spy with a license to kill and order martinis.
Disney's original mascot and corporate icon.
The Winner Is
This investigation reveals two fundamentally different strategies for cultural domination, each successful within its parameters. James Bond represents the European tradition of quality over quantity, producing carefully crafted cultural artifacts at measured intervals. Mickey Mouse embodies the American model of market saturation, achieving victory through omnipresence rather than excellence.
By the narrowest of margins, the Mouse prevails. His ninety-six years of continuous relevance, his infrastructural omnipresence through theme parks and merchandise, his role as corporate symbol of an entertainment empire, and his psychological colonisation of successive generations through infant exposure create a cumulative advantage that the spy's sophistication cannot overcome.
Yet this verdict carries significant caveats. Bond's influence on adult aspiration, on notions of refinement and masculine capability, operates in territories the Mouse cannot reach. The spy shapes who we wish to become; the Mouse shapes who we were before we knew to wish for anything. Both, in their fashion, have conquered the human imagination through methods their creators could scarcely have anticipated.