Whilst I generally agree with Howard that there is a lot of nonsense attached to CA there are varying degrees of effects it can have. At one end of the spectrum you have the many pop singers all around the world adopting American accents to sing in(bloody annoying! Why?) and at the other you get countries passing laws to copyright the names of items of food etc. engendering heated legal cases, and right-wingers deliberately provoking violence by mocking other cultures.