I hate McDonalds

I was clearing out my cupboards and found an article from the Observer on 20th October 2002. It was given to me by a fellow politics student who knew of my strong distaste for large corporations and especially those that perpetrate advertising campaigns that border on viral (designed to infiltrate the minds of young people and make sure that they become lifelong (and usually obese and/or diabetic) customers. I'm anticipating a letter from some legal schmuck telling me that both those statements are untrue and libellous but the fat and content of your average happy meal, I would tend to argue my case for me... (according to the article, there are 550 calories and 25 grams of fat in your typical Big Mac)

The article offered a startling fact sheet and I figured they'd be a good area to talk around, even 7 years later...

1) McDonald's is the largest toy distributor in the world
2) 96% of US children can identify Ronald McDonald by name - second only to Santa Claus
Principle evidence for why I can argue that McDonald's unscrupulously targets children - they are distributing more toys than any other retailer in the world and only Santa is more well known by kids... I'm pretty sure that adults aren't going to be drawn to buying them so there's only the one real target. In McDonald's defence, they're not the only one doing this but they are the only one that is doing it with 550+ calories running in tandem.

I'm not sure what these stats say about kids in general: they seem to know people who they associate with receiving toys. They're a bunch of mercenary little bastards!

3) One in three cattle in the US bred for meat is used by McDonald's
Using some statistics found online I found out that there were in the region of 96,100,000 head of beef cattle in the US. That means that there are nearly 32,000,000 McDonalds cattle in the US alone... Not the most reliable source but Wikipedia states:

cattle are cited as the greatest adverse impact with respect to climate change as well as species extinction

Cows are reknowned for their their methane production and Wikipedia further states:

a methane emission will have 25 times the impact on temperature of a carbon dioxide emission of the same mass over the following 100 years.

So, call it how you want it but the proliferation of McDonald's equates to the the deepening of the climate crisis. You could always try the Australian suggestion - apparently it's quite good. Me; well, I'm sticking to vegetarianism.

4) In Japan, where "r" is rarely pronounce, Ronald McDonald is Donald McDonald
5) Ronald McDonald was later replaced in France by Asterix, under a McDonald's strategy of "acting local"
This is one of the things that really makes me hate McDonald's: their insidious local advertising. The French hate them for their intrusion upon local food markets (let's face it, the French make good, healthy food for much the same price and in much the same time as a Happy Meal). In Britain, I've noticed a sustained campaign over the last 5 years of McDonald's adopting a green motif as opposed to their HORRIBLE, brash, "American" one. Their restaurants look more acceptable in British streets now, even if they're selling the same old soggy burgers and fries!

6) One in 200 people across the world visits a McDonald's daily
One in 200 people are fat bastards as a result! It doesn't make clear how many will visit McDonald's every other day or every week and, worse, it doesn't make clear how many people will have multiple meals there every day... There was a case recently in the UK where a woman took her children to McDonalds on a daily basis.

The problem seems to be that more and more people (read: morons) think that this is actually a balanced diet and McDonalds keep trying to pass it off as such by adding salad options etc... (Still packed full of calories)

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The article pre-dates the likes of Super Size Me and Fastfood Nation in highlighting some of the alarming things that might not be immediately obvious from McDonald's own promotional material (although, much of the article was about the downturn in the fast food market).

For me, it's a good account of why we should be careful around fast food (or other unhealthy food products including soft drinks and chocolate products) as they attempt to promote their products against a wave of government warnings about the possible long term effects (and, in the UK, the horrible consequences on the National Health Service!).

I still hate McDonald's. My hatred began far more than 10 years ago, when I lived 5 miles from the nearest McDonald's and still would leave the house every morning to find their wrappers on my front garden.

For what it's worth, I think their marketing campaigns rank them as cunts of the highest order. And as for their food... Well, I'd probably getting more nutrition and find it more enjoyable to eat out of a trash can.