Culture is a sort of pinball machine, moving through the structures of trade, law, and physics to end up defining what people get to experience. Drinking -- for the best and worst of it -- is one of those things. Above is a Berlin liquer store with a small ad on the left for a drink called -196*C Strong Zero. It's a Japanese lemon sour alcoholic soft drink which, not too long ago, was confined mostly the Asian market. However, in recent times Suntory has begun marketing the drink abroad, not least because it is popular with foreigners in Japan itself. Upon hovering over the image, a secondary image appears, this time an elaborate ad campaign for the same drink but in Tokyo's Shinjuku subway station.
Evidently Japanese soft power -- and hard trade power -- influence what people in Germany drink; not surprising. The reason I call culture a pinball machine is because Germany has a history of itself influencing East Asian drinking culture, most notably with Tsingtao beer in China; brewed in Qingdao, Germany's former colony. While in an era of globalization this sort of trade might seem benign, it begs to question who infuelnces who, and why.
Advertising is the most direct way to see cultural influence, both because it shows where money is flowing and what kind of ideas are attempting to be sold.
I spent way too long trying to get the above image to display properly but today is just not my day.