Consumerism and fast food
- Nicholas Algas
- Oct 29, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2020
Fast-food has been around for ages but has increased in popularity due to the media and our busy lives. Nowadays, families tend to have less time to sit down and eat a meal together because of conflicting schedules. It's so much easier to just head to your local Little Ceaser's and get that five dollar hot and ready than to prepare dinner. The rise of the fast food industry is very prevalent as the CDC reports that the prevalence of obesity has risen from 30.5% to 42.4% from 2000 to 2018. Now with media like TV and smart phones, advertisements and interaction with fast food is at an all-time high and these big companies are taking advantage of the widespread viewership.
Advertisement and Marketing
Advertising for fast food is everywhere from TV commercials to Instagram advertisements. What most people don't realize is that the golden arches itself are a way of advertising McDonald's. There is reason most McDonald's restaurants have the golden arches raised in the sky and that is to be able to see the establishment even from far away. Back in the 1960s, McDonald's was ready to drop the golden arches, but Louis Cheskin, design consultant and psychologist suggested not to as when flipped upside down it resembled "nourishing breasts." Today, its become almost normal for kids to be able to recognize the arches before they can even read their own name, and McDonald's has taken advantage of it ever since. Flash forward to today and McDonald's has released their Travis Scott meal in hopes of pulling them out of their Covid-19 slump. Travis Scott is one of the biggest rappers in the world currently, and the sales proved that as The Wall Street Journal reports that McDonald's stock price rose 4.6% for three consecutive months after its release.
Food Quality
Now that we have established the control fast food places have over their advertising and consumers its time to look at their food quality. Fast food's appeal is their cheap prices and fast drive-thru times so it's safe to say that their food quality may be one of the biggest reasons obesity is on the rise in America. As of today, most fast food contains very little vitamins and is high in things like carbs and sodium. As seen in "Super Size Me", Morgan Spurlock ate it every day for every meal for thirty days and in the end, he gained 25.6 pounds. According to Bradongraille.com, McDonald's serves 70 million customers daily, which shows the effect fast food restaurants have on rising obesity rates in today's society.
This article definitely helped me see that big Fast Food chains have so much marketing and advertising that it changes our whole mentality towards them. It has slowly changed society into preferring fast food over other types of food. People are now now able to simply pay a seemingly low price for the "convenience" of food, allowing for sacrifices to be made in things such as quality.
I enjoyed this post about the negative effects of consumerism on the food industry. I thought it was interesting how you explored the subtle manipulation that goes on in the marketing practices of fast food industries. I think it opens our eyes up to the ways that consumerism becomes so much less about the quality of the products or the well-being of the customers but rather solely about the money.
This article was very informative and opened my eyes to the effects of consumerism. The facts that you listed were very surprising, especially the one about obesity increase. The effect that fast food has on people is pretty mind-blowing, especially when big-name celebrities contribute to it. This blog is great for people wanting to learn more about the consumerism community.