DEBATE: WILL ANTI FAST FOOD MOVIES EAT INTO McDONALD’S SALES?
In his 2001 blockbuster of gastronomical muckraking, Fast Food Nation, author Eric Schlosser excoriated the megabillion-dollar fast-food industry. That book is credited with helping to light the activist fire under what is now a full-blown U.S. anti-obesity movement that has Congress and a bevy of other government agencies and consumer advocates bearing down on the entire food-marketing industry. As the largest fast-feeder, as well as the company that has long been the icon for the overall business itself, McDonald’s has taken much of the brunt of anti-fast-food sentiment. And now, Schlosser is back with a new book and movie that are expected to be harder-hitting than his first. In a one-two whallop, the movie version of Fast Food Nation is about to be released, accompanied by a brand new book titled Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food. The book is aimed at children and filled with gag-inducing facts and trivia about the fast-food production and preparation business. Both projects potentially threaten McDonald’s public image enough to have caused the company to convene a special session of its marketing executives to plot counter public-relations strategies.
Do you think the new round of sensational revelations and media coverage will further hurt food companies, or have things already got as bad as they can get for that industry?
27 Comments
it’s gonna hurt but the punks deserve it. They’ll take a few billion loss but they will be back. Unfortunately for Schlosser there’s no alternative for the mums out west. feed your kids maccas or make them food at home. that’s their options.Ultimately I am sure the dudes at burnetts, ddb and whoever else does business with the devil will coin a lot more cash off this than schlosser will.
True, but who really wants to make their money writing mc shit ads…do I want a reply to that? No thanks.
If people are dumb enough to still smoke, despite decades of solid evidence that it gets you addicted and fucks up your body like nothing else, then the fast food industry doesn’t have a lot to worry about.
And what the fuck does ‘feed your inner child’ mean?
On a side note, could someone please kill Jared from the Subway commercials? That fucker annoys the shit out of me.
Yeah maccas makes me sick. Unless I’m pissed of course – then it’s the last three shots of sambuca that does it.But back to the question. Things HAVE to get worse if things are to ever get better. Generally a lot of people don’t think about their health. And it’s somewhat of a social responsibility to do the thinking for them if they’re too stupid, ignorant or just too fuckin lazy to think for themselves. Fast forward 25 years. Consumption of meat has become illegal. Greenpeace is the leader of the free world and Maccas has survived. Although it’s now known as McVegan.
Nah, Big Macs will just come in unbranded wrappers, carrying pictures of hideously fat people being winched out through their apartment windows along with this message -SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: EATING THIS SHIT CAN TURN YOU INTO AN ELEPHANT.
Those pics make me hungry.
And baring in mind that I worked in an English Maccas for three months as a student many years ago, it might interest you to know that there’s a high possibility that your Filet ‘O Fish sauce actually contains cum.Allegedly.
^ Most pommies wouldn’t know the difference (ooo ah)
who cares? oh, possibly the ad industry who will be champing at the bit to write some shit ads in the hope that thay can improve sales for a client who is willing to spend millions of dollars advertising their shit product in the face of falling sales
For the record, the cum belonged to a large man from Belfast who did his bit for the ‘troubles’ by adding his ‘special sauce’ to the burgers.
plenty of chefs in proper restaurants have jizzed in the sauce/soup/creme brulee before. I know a few of them myself, they think it’s the funniest thing – strange fuckers, chefs.
A few years ago Viz comic amusingly set a challenge to the chefs of Britain to make sure that whenever Michael Winner ordered soup it would contain sperm.The guy was reinventing himself as a food critic, found out about the contest and now, apparantly, can’t order soup anywhere in the British Isles without the fear of it containing baby batter.Fucking classic.
why does KFC always get let off?
Damn…this is not the blog to read over lunch. *gingerly pushes mushroom soup away*Re KFC, they don’t really get let off, it’s more to do with mcshit being the focal point due to their overwhelming success internationally…kind of like when pike was targetted about sweatshops despite many other co.’s practising the same thing… but hey, as with advertising, a stonger point is made by focussing smartly on one thing.
Mc whocares. next lynchy
Is anyone else getting sick of seeing Cowboy Nobay everytime the site opens?
is anyone else getting sick of seeing cowboy nobay everytime the site opens?
brokeback nobay
nobay cares abut much anymore…sigh.
Lynchy, what’s this about Ian and Mick quiting JWT? Fuck me dead they only been there like two weeks or something……
JWT is rubbish and Mick and Ian have realised that.
burnetts isn’t bad for a network. I liked it. But ultimately most of the networks suck. And the cool big clients don’t really go near the small agencies because they consider australia a back waters. think adidas, nike, heineken, orange. They employ a hotshop somewhere in the world – portland, london, amsterdam to set the creative standards and then the networks are used as foot soldiers to implement them. So unfortunately australia falls in the last catergory.
2.36pm:This blog is a place set aside for us to be negative, morbid and insulting towards each other. Don’t try to ruin it by asking questions that could prompt a positive response. You will spoil it for everyone.
Is that cowboy Nobay? I always thought it was Ricky Gervais.
back on topic… oh do fuck off. We’ll write/produce ads for anyone as long as they pay. And we all eat this stuff when seriously hung over. They will survive – it’s not just the good people of Cranbourne et al that eat this! It’s part of the scenery, and may even be better than the fish n chips of our childhoods (maybe not baby batter, but old batter anyhoo). I’m boring myself now….