Writers such as Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco criticise Disney for its simulations that make unfiltered engagement with the world impossible.

ECONOMIST: Some of the best tourist destinations are man-made

Whether Mr Baudrillard's world was utter nonsense, or whether it was a profound critique of a consumerist civilisation drowning in its own meaninglessness, was a matter for lively debate.

ECONOMIST: Jean Baudrillard

It was summed up for Mr Baudrillard by a lone man jogging, oblivious to his surroundings, hearing only the music of his own sound-system and aware only of the statements he himself was making: health, fashion, endurance.

ECONOMIST: Jean Baudrillard

But by putting the cloth on the chair, and sitting on it, Mr Baudrillard added to the plethora of signs, objects and symbolic acts that made up, in his philosophical system, the whole woof and warp of the 20th century.

ECONOMIST: Jean Baudrillard