In health class, we are watching the movie Super Size Me. Many of you are probably familiar with it. It's about this man that decides to go on a 'Mcdiet,' where he eats nothing but McDonald's three times a day for a month. He does this in order to see just how detrimental eating all that fast food is to the body. At many points in the movie, he talks about the lawsuit brought up against McDonald's.
Basically, these two girls grew extremely obese and said that it was due to McDonald's food. McDonald's defended itself by saying how they are not forcing anyone to eat their food and that it is common knowledge that fast food is bad for your health. While I agree with them, I was interested to see some of the arguments brought up against this grand fast food chain.
Many people mentioned the psychological effect that McDonald's has, especially on children. A lot of their advertising is based on appealing to kids and getting them to come in. They mentioned how there was a cartoon for McDonald's, how at many McDonald's restaurants there are play grounds, and that Ronald McDonald himself was just another way to appeal to these kids. To show the influence of this character, an experiment was conducted where a group of first grade girls and boys were shown cards with different faces and asked to recognize the figures. I was surprised to see that while few were able to recognize George Washington and none were able to recognize the Wendy's mascot nor Jesus Christ, all of them were able to recognize Ronald McDonald.
Looking at this large influence on children, do you think that McDonald's, or other fast food chains, can be blamed for the growing obesity of these children?
Mary Quien
4 comments:
It's an interesting question. Do we blame McDonald's for making us fat, simply because they offer such ready access to fast food?
After all, McDonald's only provides the food. It's our own decision, our own free will, to decide whether we purchase it or not. From one view, it wouldn't be right to blame McDonald's for the obesity epidemic: people themselves choose to go eat there.
But on the other hand, McDonald's is everywhere. It is an easy temptation to consume fast food due to its ubiquity and low prices. Some families in poorer areas eat an McDonald's almost daily. Without McDonald's, certainly easy access to fattening food would be cut off.
McDonald's itself contends that is a business simply fulfilling a need out there, one that would be filled by some other business if McDonald's didn't exist. Furthermore, nowadays they offer nutritional information on all of the food and even provide salads in their restaurants. Although Spurlock suffered egregious effects in "Super Size Me", he did eat an unusually large portion of it on a daily basis. Too much of anything is a bad thing.
It's unlikely that this question will be resolved anytime soon.
-Eric W.
Although the cartoons and "Ronald McDonald" figure appeal to children, most are too young to walk into the fast food restaurant and purchase a meal themselves. Their parents may be to blame. A mother and father that are always out of the house, on call, or at work usually leave their children either alone or with a babysitter. On their way home, they may need to grab something quick, something that doesn't take much effort..and bingo!, we have McDonald's. Easily accessible food that makes children happy is always a plus in the parental world.
So, could it be that we are at fault for bad eating habits? Are we too overbooked or too lazy to make wholesome, healthy meals? I think that definitely plays a HUGE role in our eating habits, let alone our whole life agendas! Just think about how we try to save time here and save time there in the name of "efficiency." We all need to slow down...literally.
(Sam Maliha)
I think that McDonald's can't justifiably be blamed for growing obesity in children. Obviously McDonald's food is unhealthy, but people eating there should be aware of this fact. In addition, McDonald's is a business like any other business. They have a target market, just like any other business, and that market just so happens to be children. Can they be blamed for trying to thrive as a business? To me this argument is like the woman who blamed McDonald's for the burn when she spilled coffee on herself-- they didn't warn her that it was hot!
This is not to say that McDonald's should be taken completely off the hook. Yes, it is the responsibility of the consumer to be aware, but it's not like McDonald's can't cut back on fatty foods. There are things that McDonald's could be doing (and to a certain extent is doing) to cut back on the unhealthiness of its foods, especially in light of the increase in obesity in children. I almost think it would be a good marketing technique because it might make parents more willing to take their kids if the food were more healthy...
Emily T.
I agree entirely with Emily that people cannot in their right minds blame McDonald's for their own choices nor for falling hook, line, and sinker for Ronald's marketing. If McDonald's is at fault, then what explains the majority of the population, which is not feeding itself burgers and fries while pointing its finger at Ronald? The only ones to blame for the complainers' obesity are the complainers themselves. Placing the blame on McDonald's in this situation would be analogous to criticizing Mr. Lazarow for your belief that you wasted valuable time reading Watchmen, which he had encouraged you to read. It's just NOT right!
(Janet Lee)
Post a Comment