Friday, September 16, 2011

Fast Food Nation and Kid Konsumers!

   Within the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, he explains to readers the history, strategies and propaganda behind the popular industries. However, within pages (40-45) Schlosser elaborates on children as main targets of these industries, such as McDonalds, Walt-Disney etc. Hence, he touches on something so true, people fail to realize this and as a result waste money and put their families health in jeopardy.

     He explains that" children often recognize a brand logo before they recognize their on name.” He also went on to say that these companies have a plan to “give kids a reason to ask for the product.”  Therefore, companies with the motto of families first have completely went against their philosophy. They don’t really care at this point, as the money they make pile up they begin to loose interest of quality and focus on quantity. How could you treat the customers that keep your company going in a harsh and unfriendly manner?

    Another interesting point to touch on is that company has spent money to do research on their strategies in order for them to succeed as necessary to gain more customers and eliminate competition. The author explains that the researchers have found that there are many ways in which a child requests what he or she wants or desires and the manner in which they do it. There is the pleading nag, a persistent nag, the forceful nag, demonstrative nags, the sugar coated nag, threatening nag and the pity nag. Each nag entitles a child to frustrate the busy mind of his or her parent to say, “YES”, just for the child to stop. With this being said, companies have come to the realize that as well and instead of preventing this from occurring they try to increase this action, because with this action their companies grow. If children don’t do these actions, their companies will indeed falter.

    This process is insane especially when Kroc who is associated with the growth of McDonalds said that this is a “rat eat rat, dog eat dog, society and before the customers kill him he will kill them.” Slowly but surely his success is growing at killing his customers. Killing them in any way possible, breaking their pockets, making them feel insecure and making them unhealthy with ever bite of their big Mac or French fries. What could have been done to Kroc in the past influences his philosophy?

1 comment:

  1. Oops, this is the blog I wa supposed to comment on. I like your thesis statement, especially the fact that it is the first sentence of your first paragraph. I also like how you have all of these supporting details within each body paragraph. Also your paragraphs flow together nicely. You should fix that citation in your first paragraph, and maybe put other things in quotations. I like your last paragraph as well, and I know you will be able to expand on this, and be able to answer your own question. Very nice blog overall, really captivates the audience.

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