Ways that Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me have impacted the fast food industry
The days of family's sitting down at the dinner table every night, with the exception of an occasional break from cooking for a night out to a restaurant are gone. While many family's still sit down and have family time over the dinner table, it is no longer the norm. With many single parent family's struggling to work sometimes two jobs to make ends meet, kids busy schedules of ball games and cheer leading, and intensive job schedules, the meal at the dinner table is becoming obsolete.
Parents, single folks and workaholics who don't care to cook, have changed the fast food industry almost as much as it has changed itself. Eating out use to be a treat for a family, but now it is the norm. The Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me have increased sales in the fast food industry more than any regular restaurant or food sales. While McDonald's serves up Coca Cola, they have surpassed the giant in number of sales.
The fast food industry over the past decade have aimed their marketing towards children. This has turned out to be quite profitable, after all many families with kids have two. Better yet, if mom and dad take you for a burger they are more likely to eat too. Now, while it may have been only one child begging to go eat at McDonalds to get a hold of that "Happy Meal" or play on the playground, there is potentially a family buying a meal for three or more. While, children don't understand the lack of nutritional value of many of these meals or how they are being targeted, this has put the U.S. in the lead for the fast food industry, dubbing it with the nickname "The Fast Food Nation".
To make matters worse, along came the super size me error, in the fast food industry. Fast food, being addictive as it is, many people often binge and crave more than they would normally eat when it comes to more nutritional healthy foods. As a result, American's haven't learned when enough is enough. So the fast food industry came up with the "Super Size". The super size is an option of making your beverage and fries larger for an additional fee. With the addition of these fatty foods, American's are all the more eager to get more bang for their buck and get the super size. While getting a larger drink and fries, they are also getting more fats, sugar, and sodium. This has put the fast food industry over the top and increased their sales. If American's weren't hooked before, they sure are now.
In 2003 a documentary written by Morgan Spurlock made it's debut. This book "Super Size Me", was a documentary following Morgan's diet of a fast food binge for 30 days. At day 21 of this fast food, 5000 a day calorie diet, he was warned by his doctor to stop the diet. The findings were astonishing. During the month long fast food binge, Morgan gained 24.5 lbs. While he gained this in only 30 days, it took over a year to loose it all. In addition, the doctors say he suffered irreversible heart damage that may never go away, regardless of how healthy he eats. This documentary was a wake up call to America. It exposed the fast food industry and it's fatty food diet.
These practices of the fast food industry in a need for greed and higher sales, which have prompted marketing children and super sizing, has now brought a whole new error. While these techniques worked and increased sales, they also did it at the health risk's of naive American's. A chain reaction of obesity in American's, including children has been set loose. Cholesterol levels are raising, and many American's who are addicted to the fatty foods are now having liver problems, thus leading to Diabetes, Heart problems, Stroke, and many more ailments, that are raising at epidemic levels.
These new highly raised health issues with American's has prompted the FDA and the Government to step in an start trying to regulate some new rules. Among these rules fast food chains are now having to post the nutritional information of the food they serve, such as the calories, sugar, sodium, and fat content to the public, especially their patrons. In addition, fast food chains are now being pressured to provide more nutritional and less fatty foods on their menu's. After the publication of "Super Size Me", McDonald's decided to pull their super size items off the menu in 2004, in a last ditch attempt to reflect some of the scrutiny. While, burgers and fries surely will not go away, the fast industry will forever be impacted by the changes resulting from "The Fast Food Nation" and "Super Size Me" error.
Now, the fast food industry is not soley to blame, so our the American's who made the "Fast Food Nation" such a sucess, giving it the nick name. American's in their busy schedules and personal preferences of not wanting to cook so much, they have boosted the fast food industry right up to be a financial power house. With business booming like this, who wouldn't want to expand thei8r revenues. Obviously, most wouldn't turn down the oppurtunity to grow. That is exactly what the industry has done. First came the first McDonalds, then another, and another. Then folowed other fast food chains, until there were fast food competitors on almost every street corner and in every mall of America. Still looking to expand came the idea of what about going "Wordwide"?
That's exactly what happened. With McDonald's being founded in 1940 in California and incorporated in 1955, they grew like wildfire, eventually spreading into Canada. In 1967, the first McDonald's in Canada was opened. Now McDonalds is in 119 countries world wide and other fast food chains such as KFC, Burger King, and Taco Bell have followed into other countries. Now in tough economic times where other industries are failing and asking for government bailouts, the fast food industry is holding it's own. It's good tasting, cheap meals, the "Super Size Me", and "The Fast Food Nation" have changed the fast food industry and put it on the map for eternity.