by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: March 17, 2009   Last Updated: March 18, 2009

The question of whether fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King are on their way out stems from the fact that the fast food industry has, in recent years, had to defend its role in fuelling obesity levels, as well as justifying some of its marketing strategies, particularly those aimed at children.

In the past few decades there has been a proliferation of fast food eating establishments, and so it is harder for any one fast food restaurant to dominate the landscape and to exercise the influence on eating habits which restaurants like McDonald's and KFC once did. However, there seems to be plenty of room for a multitude of fast food restaurants which cater for all different tastes, and this situation is unlikely to change any time soon.

This is despite the fact that many people are facing pecuniary difficulties as they bear the brunt of the economic crisis. People often try to make savings where they can, and yet fast food restaurants seem to be one of the few industries to actually benefit from people's money troubles.

Fast food costs much more money than preparing a meal from scratch, and yet many individuals find themselves gravitating towards fast food establishments. Sometimes they may be trading down, having frequented more expensive restaurants previously; at other times people may just need a treat packed full of sugar, salt and fat to cheer themselves up.

There may have been a kind of snobbishness towards fast food restaurants in the past, but now that people are struggling to make ends meet they find that restaurants like McDonald's are not as bad as they thought.

This may be because fast food establishments have had to adapt their menus, change the layout of their restaurants, and find a new way to market themselves in order to keep up with competition. It seems that McDonald's has been particularly successful at presenting itself as more socially responsible than in previous years, having had to deal with a lot of negative press coverage resulting from the publication of various books and documentaries about their practices.

Although there may be some doubt about how healthy their new menu is, they have made an effort to include salads and lower fat alternatives to their usual offerings in order to quell accusations made against McDonald's that it has played a disproportionate role in fuelling obesity.

It is not surprising that such accusations have been made when considering the amount of money McDonald's has spent marketing its products to children, who are extremely susceptible to such influence. However, fast food restaurants in general face a tougher time marketing their products to children in future, in much of Europe anyway, as individual countries crack down on television advertisements directly targeted at children.

Of course the fast food industry and its marketing departments will always find a way to subvert rules and regulations. In reality, though, there is little need to since there will always be demand for fast food, no matter how bad it is for people's health and how much money Western governments spend trying to discourage people from eating it. Fast food is far too embedded in Western culture to ever completely be dismissed.

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