Friday, September 27, 2013

Summary and Response Essay




                                         Fast food has become a big part of America’s culture and is consumed almost daily by Americans. In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation he describes how big of a empire Fast Food chains have become. He gives an example by describing the “McDonald’s Plaza” and “Hamburger University”. Located in Oak Brook, Illinois this place teaches students proper McDonald’s language and McDonald’s culture. The plaza includes a “McStore” that sells everything that’s McDonald’s and also a Ray Kroc museum. Fast food is advertised as if it's not even food. Children are bombarded with commercials with a cheery jingle, sometimes animated characters and offered a toy with a purchase. The Fast food's companies secret to success is their aggressive marketing to children. But, are all the child advertisements justifiable and moral?

                               Ray Kroc has known Walt Disney since they were young; they’ve served in World War I together and also both moved to California for new business opportunities. Walt Disney gained his success earlier than Ray Kroc did. He was a professional at building his empire based on selling to children. When Kroc convinced the McDonald brothers to sell him the right to franchise McDonald’s globally, he emulated Disney’s marketing technique of selling to children because he knew they are a profitable and easy demographic to manipulate. I remember as a child all the countless McDonald’s commercials and they continue even going on regularly today. Kroc was very competitive; he was determined to be on top of the fast food industry. He described the business as “dog eat dog” and “the American way of survival of the fittest” he was aggressive to his competitors, mentioning that he was “going to kill them before they killed him” (Schlosser 37).
                              Kroc took to advertising to children following Disney’s success because he knew that a child who enjoyed watching a McDonald’s commercial would be inclined to eat there and he/she would have to bring his parents too. This method of advertising brought extra customers to the restaurant to bring their children. Schlosser mentions that in 1960 McDonald’s decided to sponsor Bozo’s Circus, a popular children’s television show at the time. This sponsorship attracted many new customers and proved to be very profitable. So when Bozo’s Circus was canceled McDonald’s took the initiative and created its own mascot and they came up with the instantly famous clown, Ronald McDonald. It's interesting how many children recognize Ronald McDonald at such a early age. After Ronald McDonald, the company created McDonaldland, an imaginary world with bright colors, playgrounds, friendly characters and food and all these elements combined turned children into the largest consumers of fast food.
                               Due to McDonald's and Disney's major success in targeting their advertisements to children, today most large companies aim their advertising at children. They hope that all the advertising at a young age will encourage future sales because of nostalgic adults. It has gotten to the point that today, on children’s TV channels there’s commercials for adult services such as car insurance with animated characters.  According to Schlosser "a persons brand loyalty may begin as early as the age of two" (Schlosser 43). Advertising to children successfully ensures more sales of the product because children persuade their parents to purchase whatever is being advertised for temporary satisfaction. All the commercials targeted at children is a subject of controversy. These advertisements prey on the children's immaturity and they easily become influenced by the television because they don't know any better. As fast food restaurants found out this was the way into kids hearts they mixed advertisement with popular children's TV shows and channels. I remember when I was young McDonald's had a huge promotion for Pokemon and Tamagotchi toys, these fads made children feel like they needed these toys. This associates one thing that the kids like with the advertised product making the positive feelings they get about the programming and the food synonymous.
                               In conclusion, I believe that the current manner that companies aggressively market their products towards children isn't right. I'm not saying that there should be absolutely any commercials towards a child demographic but, to the extent that it is done now it’s ridiculous. Today, children spend more time watching TV than anything else, their babysitter so to speak is the television and all they watch is children programming. Children's TV channels should solely be for kid entertainment purposes. Instead it's used to manipulate young minds at a very early age to be part of the hyper-consumerism society that the United States is obsessed with.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Capter 2: Your Trusted Friends


In chapter 2 of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser goes into detail into various aspects of the fast food company and the role it plays in modern society. This chapter touches the subjects of consumerism,child advertising, and ,marketing. He introduces the chapter in an interesting manner in which he puts us in the setting of McDonald’s Plaza and Hamburger University in illinois. This place is the perfect example of how synonymous american culture has become with the fast food industry.

At one time these companies weren’t as big as they are today. One of the main reasons of their success is due to the fact that they learned how to sell food and happiness to children. They’ve learned how to market to children with bright colors, playful characters, toys and other commodities that children find appealing. They chose to target children specifically for three main reasons. one of them being that child customers naturally bring more customers because they need their parents money to pay for food which will likely cause the parents to buy their own food. the second reason simply being that children are the easiest demographic to fool and manipulate because they’re immature children and they don’t know that they are being fooled. The last reason is that McDonald’s (and now most major companies) want to make sure that from a very early age children become accustomed and familiar with the brands logo. They believe that this early relationship with a child ensures future sales from a nostalgic adult.

To further integrate fast food into america’s culture, fast food companies saw it as a good idea to work with other companies to further promote their product. These other companies that they usually signed deals with are directly with entertainment companies that work in television and movies. These deals were extremely profitable, they associated usually a popular childrens TV show and characters and the fast food. This was to make them associate something they like with something else and increase more sales. This has forever integrated America’s pop culture with fast food and now it’s considered a normal thing to have fast food a few times during the week. But, is that the way americans should be eating?

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Summary of Chapter 1: The Founding Fathers




        Chapter one of Fast Food Nation written by Eric Schlosser focuses on the story of Carl N. Karcher. This man came up from humble beginnings, He was born on a farm in Ohio and his father was a sharecropper so the family had to relocate every few years. One year his uncle Ben Karcher wanted Carl to travel west to California for a job. He accepted and moved to Anaheim, California, which was a small town with a lot of farms that grew oranges, lemons and tangerines. He worked with his uncle at a feed and seed store for a while. After returning from a trip to Ohio he started to work at a bakery as a driver for bread deliveries. Which in turn, made him interested in being a hot dog vendor where he had some success.

            At the time California’s culture was taken over by the rising use of automobiles. When cars became more affordable people switched from trolley transportation to personal automobiles. With that change in transportation the states culture changed in a matter that revolved around cars, where everything had to be fast and mobile. Thus, rose the highly successful drive-in restaurant chains. At the end of 1944, Carl still worked for the bakery and owned 4 hot dog carts. Until he made an investment In a restaurant. After world war II the economic boom was especially prevalent in California, that’s when Carl’s restaurant business soared.

            California’s car culture continued to be an effective catalyst in profiting businesses. McDonald’s opened the first drive-thru restaurant that did not require any carhops and was the fastest way to buy food. Carl Karcher saw the success of the McDonald brothers idea and emulated his restaurant in the same fashion.
           

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Meaning of Food in My Life



            Everyday people wake up, and get ready to go to work and attend to the various tasks throughout the day. Especially in New York City where the citizens feel overwhelmed from work life. But, even if we are doing a million tasks throughout the day we still take a decent amount of time off to enjoy a meal or a snack. Most of us would not make it through the day if it weren’t for food. It’s a vital part of our life and necessary for survival. The scientific nature of food is to give us nutrients that we need to stay healthy and to get sufficient energy to get through the day. It’s in our nature to have a desire for food that appears appetizing most notably when we feel hungry.
        
      I come from an immediate Dominican family. When we eat it’s usually a large amount of food. The Dominican diet for the most part, includes rice, beef, poultry, plantains, salami and also a number of tropical fruits. On special occasions we make large portions of “sancocho” or “mofongo”. Since the country is located in the Caribbean there’s a close association of having fruits for snacks. Due to the climate and good growing conditions because of the location of the island there’s a dependence on fruits and livestock for food.
          
           A few years ago my father used to work as a butcher, meat packer and cook. It was a major precaution that he had to take to make sure the food was fresh and safe to eat, and that the food is properly cooked. My family has always noted the importance of eating healthy and not in excess. Eating too much even if it’s healthy food, can have adverse negative effects. This is because you’d be eating just to eat and not to fill your stomach.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Is America's food supply safe?




                The United States receives food from all over the world to the home of its citizens. To ensure the safety of the food, the Food and Drug Administration takes precautionary measures before the food is distributed to local supermarkets and homes. Americans have one of the safest supplies of food in the world and this is largely due to the responsibility that the administration takes to revise the food for any bacteria or any type of virus. They also work to learn how to prevent these contaminations happening which limits the possibility from contamination reoccurring.

            The F.D.A. works with modern technology to make sure that the drugs and food sold in the U.S. is safe for the people to consume. To do this they carefully examine foods for contamination and work on how to prevent it. Hundreds of investigators working for the F.D.A. work closely with pharmaceutical and food companies to make sure the product they distribute are safe for consumption. If there is a suspicion that the food is unsafe the administration works diligently to identify the problem, learn how it occurred and tries to prevent it from happening again. In regards to imported food, there are experts in foreign countries that inspect the food beforehand and F.D.A. inspectors at the borders to make sure the food looks safe. The F.D.A. also advises consumers how to keep the food they buy safe. They do so by informing consumers at what temperature to cook food, how to preserve food and how to handle raw meat, seafood, and poultry.

            It’s very crucial that the food we eat is safe. Because the U.S. consists of a lot of cities, food travels from the farms and foreign countries to give everyone a wide variety of food supply. Any bacterial or viral contamination that the food we receive may pose as a serious threat to our health. If we didn’t have the Food and Drug Administration to make the revisions that they do, we’d have to be taking a greater risk of buying contaminated food. This can make a great portion of the population ill, unhealthy, and also prove to be fatal.

            In conclusion, in believe that the F.D.A. does a thorough job at making sure the food we eat is safe. However, despite all the work they do it’s impossible to make sure all food is safe to eat. The job ultimately depends on the consumer’s judgment and care of the food they buy. There needs to be some type of control over what is distributed in the country. It’s important to keep the F.D.A. doing its part in revising the food and drugs that the American people consume.