] kac [ weblog ]

Because it's not up to them to restrict their customers bad eating habits. Actually, quite the opposite. To stay competitive, they have to give the public what they want, not what they need. So much so that it doesn't even become a decision; these fast food chains want to become an everyday part of your life.

From New York Times reporter Rob Banker's review of the Eric Schlosser's best-selling book, Fast Food Nation (soon to be released as a movie):

In the opening pages of ''Fast Food Nation,'' Eric Schlosser makes a series of observations about McDonald's. The company operates about 28,000 restaurants around the world. It's the nation's biggest buyer of beef, pork and potatoes, and the world's biggest owner of retail property. The company is one of the country's top toy distributors and its largest private operator of playgrounds. Ninety-six percent of American schoolchildren can identify Ronald McDonald. Roughly one of every eight workers in the United States has done time at the chain. The McDonald's brand is the most famous, and the most heavily promoted, on the planet. ''The Golden Arches,'' Schlosser says, ''are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.'' Of course, McDonald's isn't alone. ''The whole experience of buying fast food,'' he writes, ''has become so routine, so thoroughly unexceptional and mundane, that it is now taken for granted, like brushing your teeth or stopping for a red light.''

Not that anyone's really surprised that it's all about the grease-stained American dollar. What does surprise me is that this "chicken bowl" must have been field-tested, which means it was greenlighted (greenlit?) by some executive who didn't uncontrollably laugh through his nose when he first heard the idea.

When I first saw the KFC ad I thought it was a spoof, like one of those Saturday Night Live parodies. Funnier still was the inclusion of corn, as if that covered anyone's need for veggies, and the guarantee of all white (processed) chicken, because, I guess, dark meat would be a culinary no-no.

I in no way claim to be the epitome of good health. I do, however, make every effort to mix it up; the gourmand in me won't let me do otherwise. That's one reason why I like to cook, it gives me control on what I put in my body, and I can appeal to my tastes and health concerns for less money than dining out.

Now that I suffer less hangovers--having my common sense with me more often--I no longer supersize. I no longer order a double or triple anything. Sandwiches no longer automatically require cheese or bacon, or any meat many times. But I had to re-learn that. Fast food companies don't want people to re-learn good eating habits or un-learn bad ones.

Which is why every time society pushes for a more health-conscious lifestyle, these companies have to come up with something enticing to snap society out of it. A Meat-Normous omelette sandwich, a McGriddle (the Egg McMuffin alone taught American to have fast food for breakfast!), a Double Decker Taco, or 3 medium pizzas for $5 a piece.

And when these companies know that their prime demographic (25 and under and getting younger every year) spend most of their time seated at a computer or video game or plying themselves with alcohol, it's time to realize that these companies have absolutely no respect for for it's customer's health or, more importantly, intelligence. Their behavioral disregard for their costumers resembles that of the tobacco industry; parents should be just as outraged at Ronald McDonald as they were at Joe Camel (And even I find it creepy that the Burger King keeps waking up in other people's beds!).

But I guess they'll save their outrage for the pharmaceutical companies who will overcharge them for the heart, stomach, blood and joint pain medicines they'll need for themselves or, worse, for their own kids!

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Post Script:

And to make matters even worse, now it seems the only way to get our children to take their vitamins is to make it look and taste like candy!