McDonald's is teaming up with MTV to tell the world they're "lovin' it," Reebok has sports and entertainment stars pledging "I Am What I Am," while Coca-Cola is on the hunt for a message to send across the globe. Some of the world's biggest brands are reintroducing themselves on the global stage -- using marketing campaigns with catch-all slogans to sell their products to a worldwide audience, irrespective of borders, culture or even religion.

　　"The goal is to be more consistent and bring back some bigness to brand Coca-Cola," spokesman Kelly Brooks said of the company's plan to spend an additional $350 million to $400 million this year on marketing that will shift from local ads to campaigns that could span an entire continent.

　　It is the Coca-Cola Co.'s "attempt to restore its global iconic status," Brooks said. The Atlanta soft drink giant's last truly worldwide campaign was its "Always" slogan used from 1993 to 1999.

　　Advertising experts say after years of regional or countrywide campaigns, marketers are homing in on the belief that needs and wants -- particularly for food, drink and clothing -- are little different around the globe. Selling a lifestyle is easier now that more people can aspire to the same one.

　　"The global teenager is very similar. The needs are converging around the world. This now allows companies to make this trade-off in favor of big campaigns," said Nader Tavassoli, a marketing professor at the London Business School. "Before that, companies incurred the costs of tailoring a lot of their campaigns locally because needs were truly different -- but needs are converging."

　　Many big companies -- particularly those based in the United States -- have been looking for ways to maximize their resources in the face of tougher competition and have identified the merging global culture as one place to do that, said Andy

　　Corcoran, an advertising professor at Lincoln University in northern England. "They are able, because people know who they are, to take a position, to make their brand fit those global needs and wants," Corcoran said. "They can take that across the world."