The fast food industry is one of the most powerful and persuasive industries in America. Everywhere you go, whether it’s a few miles down the street to the grocery store, a trip to the beach or a vacation to another country, there’s fast food advertisements with big signs colored in red and yellow that are suppose to make you hungry. Whether it’s on a billboard, a sign, a commercial or pasted in the windows of the restaurants themselves, these advertisements are all bound by similar conventions that give the fast food industry its negative image through the eyes of critics and skeptics.
Commercials are one of the main sources of persuasion that these companies use to draw customers in. They have playful vibes and smiles with groovy tunes that give the viewer a sense of comfort, followed by mascots or cartoon characters which contribute to the positive vibe. For Mcdonald, it’s Ronald Mcdonald and friends. For Burger king it’s the big-headed smiling king and for Carl’s junior, it’s the Happy Star. All of these examples possess the same characteristics that contribute to the positive vibe intended to persuade the younger portion of their audience.
Fast food advertisements also highlight teamwork to show that they “actually care” about the customer’s satisfaction and overall experience. In commercials that exemplify the daily duties of fast food workers, they’re smiling and look like they actually enjoy themselves as they work together to cater to the customers’ needs. In the 2015 youtube Mcdonalds commercial, a little boy orders an ice cream cone from an enthusiastic, smiling cashier who then proceeds to serve him. The little boy immediately drops the cone and frowns, but is cheered up seconds later by the cashier who gives him a new cone.
In addition to catchy advertisements that evoke a sense of pathos from the viewer, fast food companies use deals to persuade the older portion of the audience or the most general population. Two for the price of one is one of the most commonly used deals that fast food companies are grossly criticized for. The food may be extremely affordable, but it’s also very low quality, mass produced and very unhealthy. In 2014, Mcdonalds advertised Big Macs as being two for the price of one. Yes, two is better than one, but eating two Big Mac’s is extremely unhealthy. A single Big Mac contains 33g of fat which is 50% of a standard daily value. Eating two fulfills and an entire day’s worth of fat in just a single meal. Almost every fast food company has a dollar menu too, which is even more appealing and affordable. Presenting an audience with deals exemplifies fast food companies use of logos to persuade, and is indeed effective when used to draw in customers.
Fast food companies also intend to develop a sense of ethos for themselves by making themselves sound credible and more qualified than their competition. On most Mcdonalds signs below the big, yellow M, it says something to the effect of “billions and billions served”. This is supposed to persuade the viewer that they are a very qualified restaurant because so many people have eaten there. Additionally, in every Wendy’s commercial, they highlight the freshness of their natural ingredients which is intended to make their food seem higher quality than their competition who use shitty ingredients. What Wendy’s, McDonalds, and many other companies have in common is the competitive nature to persuade and mislead- gasoline that fuels the fire for affordances from the book Fast Food Nation to the documentary Supersize Me.
Mcdonald’s youtube commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZCbvpJ4O6c
Wow man! I think this is pretty darn good. I really like the video and all the pictures that you added. Anyways besides that I really like how you identify all th different ways that the fast foood industry deceive us. You identify the ways that fast food companies want us to think that they are family friendly, and provide us with good food for a low price. But, in reality they don’t. I also think it’s cool that you identified two movies at the very end of your piece that reinforce your point of view and show the conventions that are in this industry. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThat was a pretty good PB1A. I liked the use of vocabulary words such as ethos a pathos, which I couldn’t manage to fit into my PB1A. I liked how you compared various strategies across varying fast food companies. It was quite clear and concise. I was a nice format and made the essay extremely readable. There was a consistent flow and tone to it, which is hard to pull off. My idea for how to make it better would be how fast food companies are designed to addict their customers, a la the cigarette companies before them. Overall very good read.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great PB 1A. The essay was extremely readable, and the evidence that you provided to support your claims made the project that much better. I also really liked the way you spoke about more than just one fast food restaurant and showed us how the conventions for this genre are followed by so many different corporations, they have to work. The pathos and ethos references made the paper that much more understandable as we have been reading about those topics in class, so it somewhat grew on from the lesson plan and covered what has been covered in class. Also your sources were so perfect, because those are two widely known arguments against Fast Food. You must’ve done your research, so good job man, great PB1A!
ReplyDelete