Fast Food Nation

1
Fast Food Nation Fast Food World

• Jason M. Artman, Chris Mangun, Sean OLaughlin,
  Tracy Van Prooyen, Chris Weaver, Jody Wiley

2
Vital Theme and Narrative

• Civilization, Cultural Diffusion, and
  InnovationSchlossers Fast Food Nation argues
  that the influence of the fast food industry
  permeates through all American culture and has
  grown to a world-wide culture.

3
First Order Document

• McMemories Official McDonalds Collectibles
  Advertisement
• 1997 Magazine Ad

4
Second Order Documents

• Raising the Arches
• http//politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/bli
  raqmcdonalds.htm

5
Second Order Documents

• Food Defects Action Levels
• The Food Defect Action Levels of natural or
  unavoidable defects in foods that present no
  health hazards for humans
• Peanut Butter
• Insect filth Average of 30 or more insect
  fragments per 100 grams
• Rodent filth Average of 1 or more rodent hairs
  per 100 grams
• MushroomsCanned and Dried
• Insects Average of over 20 or more maggots of
  any size per 100 grams
• U.S. FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied
  Nutrition 1998

6
Second Order Documents

• The Short Handled
  Hoe
• It was a dirty, miserable job that gave real
  meaning to the term "backbreaking" labor. The
  work was done with two "instruments of horror"
  designed by the devil, according to one worker.
  One was the infamous "short shoe," which had a
  handle twelve to eighteen inches long. A regular
  long-handled hoe could have been used, but it was
  considered harmful to the plants. With the short
  hoe, there was less margin for error.
• http//www.farmworkers.org/shorthoe.html

7
Second Order Documents

• First
  McDonalds
  Restaurant
• http//www.mcdonalds.com/countries/usa/corporate/i
  nfo/museum/pic1/

8
Second Order Documents

• Fast Food Nation
• --The growth in children's advertising has been
  driven by efforts to increase not just current,
  but also future, consumption. Hoping that
  nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead
  to a lifetime of purchases, companies now plan
  "cradle-to-grave" advertising strategies.
• --No other industry in the United States has a
  workforce so dominated by adolescents. About
  two-thirds of the nation's fast food workers are
  under the age of twenty. Instead of relying upon
  a small, stable, well-paid, and well-trained
  workforce, the fast food industry seeks out
  part-time, unskilled workers who are willing to
  accept low pay. Teenagers have been the perfect
  candidates for these jobs, not only because they
  are less expensive to hire than adults, but also
  because their youthful inexperience makes them
  easier to control ....
• Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation

9
Second Order Documents

• McDonaldization of Society
• --McDonaldization is prevalent everywhere, and
  there are very few possibilities for escapeYou
  are exposed to McDonaldization when you super
  size your fries or head to the supermarket to
  rent a video. Every time you use an ATM, pay for
  your gas at the pump or call a company and are
  led through a series of menus before reaching an
  actual human, you are taking part in a
  McDonaldized part of society.
• --(T)heyve set in motion something which is so
  much bigger than they are, that this process is
  so much broader than what they are. In fact,
  McDonalds could disappear tomorrow, or could go
  out of business tomorrow and this process would
  continue on. You might have to give it a
  different name but the process would continue, I
  mean the process had a history long before
  McDonaldsThe fast food restaurant, or
  McDonalds could disappear but the process will
  be transformed into some new form.
• Interview with George Ritzer, author of
  McDonaldization of Society, 1993

10
Third Order Documents

• http//www.farmworkers.org/testimony.html
• http//www.farmworkers.org/migrdata.html
• Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization of Society.
  Pine Forge Press 1993
• Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. 1905
• www.stopchildlabor.org
• www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor
• www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
• McDonalds pamphlet All About McDonalds and
  You Your Family
• McDonalds pamphlet We Share Our Community
• McDonalds pamphlet Taste, Choice and Balanced
  Eating A Menu of Taste and Choice