Bennett and Royle state that 'the desirability of a given product is in a sense branded into our consciousness and unconscious. This leads to the world of what Jean Baudrillard calls the hyperreal, in which reality is fabricated by technology'. (2009:283-284) Hyperreality is the final stage of Baudrillard’s notion of a four stage development in Western society. Hyperreality occurs when ‘there is no relationship between the sign and reality, because there is no longer anything real to reflect.’ (Snipp-Walmsley Cit Waugh 2006:413) We can not escape the world of the hyperreal because, as Bennett and Royle state, it is 'branded' in to us. We recreate ourselves to fit whatever the latest trend is, what Snipp-Walmsley says is completely true we are programmed and manipulated to desire something and then create the desired 'thing' to fulfil our desires. This changes our whole perspective on what reality is. The hyperreal is another way in which our reality is questioned, another way in which we are all tricked in to thinking that what we see is real. How can what we see on TV or in other parts of the media be real when there is no original to precede the simulacrum. The 'original' is created from the simulacrum.
Baudrillard goes on to further illuminate the theory that America is no longer real; it is simulated, and portrays Disney Land as an imaginary place ‘in order to make us believe that the rest is real’ (Baudrillard 1983). This hyperreality of America makes us again question what is real and what is fake. He further states that ‘It is no longer a question of a false representation of reality (ideology), but of concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle.’ (Baudrillard 1983)
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