“Over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-throughs, at stadiums, airports, zoos, high-schools, elementary schools, and universities, on cruise ships, trains, airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gas-stations and even at hospital cafeterias.”
“Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and re-recorded music - combined.”
“What people eat (Or don’t eat) has always been determined by a complex interplay of social, economic, and technological forces.”
“A generation ago, three-quarters of money used to buy food in the United States was spent to prepare meals at home. Today about half of the money used to buy food is spent at restaurants - mainly at fast food restaurants.”
“An estimated one out of every eight workers in the united states has at some point been employed by McDonalds.”
“McDonalds spends more money on advertising and marketing than any other brand. As a result it has replaced Coca-Cola as the world’s most famous brand. McDonald’s operates more playground’s than any other private entity in the United States. It is one of the nation’s largest distributors of toys. A survey of American school-children found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald.”
“The golden arches are now more widely recognised than the christian cross.”
“The values, tastes, and industrial practices of the American fast food industry are being exported to every corner of the globe, helping to create a homogenized international culture that sociologist Benjamin R. Barber has labeled “McWorld”.”
“During the late 1960s, McDonald’s began to tear down the restaurants originally designed by Richard McDonald, the buildings with golden archers atop their slanted roofs. Worried about how customers might react to the switch, the McDonald’s corporation hired Louis Cheskin - a prominent design consultant and psychologist - to help ease the transition. He argued against completely eliminating the golden arches, claiming they had great Freudian importance in the subconscious mind of consumers. According to Cheskin, the golden arches resembled a pair of large breasts: “mother McDonald’s breasts.” It made little sense to lose the appeal of that universal, and yet somehow all-American symbolism.”
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