McDonalds...Good or Evil?

Alessandra Williams

Deshana12@hotmail.com

248-890-7469

April 2nd, 2006

Section 1: The Case and/or the Issue

"Welcome to McDonald's what can I get for you today?" Does that famous saying sound familiar? Ever wonder why people keep going back to McDonald's week after week even after knowing that the food is not healthy? The answer lies in the fast food chains effective advertising and marketing. Today's families are busy and the price of time expensive so a meal that is fast and cheap is of high value. The concept is simple, eat at McDonalds and you will have more time to enjoy the company of your family. McDonald's image portrays that they are more than just food; it's one of the small pleasures that people around the world enjoy everyday! Around the world is right, McDonald's has over 9,500 restaurants in 45 countries and has a marketing budget that never been matched by any other single brand name. McDonald's spends more than $800 million dollars every year on marketing and promotion. Why spend so much money? Well, greater appeal to the "sweet spot" leads to an increase in customers, which in turn creates a larger profit. The "sweet spot" is the psychological spot that offers the greatest opportunity for the brand to become relevant to the consumer. Advertisements portraying McDonald's as a happy, circus-like place where burgers and chips are provided for everybody at any hour of the day (and late at night), traps children into thinking they aren't "normal" if they don't go there too.

Section 2: Your Idea

Nearly all McDonald's marketing is aimed at children. What this amounts to is the exploitation of children in order to profit off a product that is harmful to the physical body of a person and the environment of the Earth. Few children are slow to spot the gaudy and yellow standardized frontages in shopping centers and high streets throughout the country. McDonald's know exactly what kind of pressure this puts on people looking after children. It's hard not to give in to this 'convenient' way of keeping children 'happy', even if you haven't got much money and you try to avoid junk food. Not a lot of children are interested in nutrition, and even if they were, all the gimmicks and routines with paper hats and straws and balloons hide the fact that the food they're seduced into eating is at best mediocre, at worst poisonous. A child who grows up eating McDonalds will likely turn into and adult who does the same. Its no secret that today's kids are getting bigger and bigger. According to Jim Lehrer, The percentage of children and teenagers who are overweight has tripled in the past 30 years and that one-third of overweight students are so heavy they will probably have serious health problems later in life. Any casual observer would notice another change that has taken place over the past thirty years, the influx of McDonalds into communities.

When McDonalds first started it was a burger joint, and than it added a drive through but today it is much more than that. It is served at high school lunches, sponsors children's sports team, is a meeting place for birthdays and the list goes on and on. In fact, the only more recognized figure among American children than Ronald McDonald is Santa Clause. How is McDonalds not appearing relevant to its customers when it is so easily recognizable and such a larger part of daily life?

The dangers posed to the body by eating greasy cheeseburgers and French fries day in and day out while sucking down a Coca-Cola are obvious. The Dangers and the contribution to the depletion of the rainforest by McDonalds are not so obvious. McDonalds sells beef. Many beef suppliers get their beef from Central and South American countries. These cattle farms are usually placed on rainforest land that had been cut and cleared and the poor soil of the rainforest can only sustain life (grain for the cattle to fed upon) for up to a decade (although the mean is 2 years). The beef suppliers must move their farms every few years and consequently destroy more rainforest. Rarely does the forest regrow, even if replanted (which is even more rare). 70% of the moisture that makes a rainforest a "rain"forest originates from the transpiration of the leaves on the vegetation. Once that vegetation is removed for a few years and then replaced when its bovine purpose is complete, the species of the rainforest cannot reestablish themselves because of the now lack of moisture they need to survive.

Trees serve as vital links in the water and nutrient cycles of the rainforest, absorbing most of the rainfall. When tree cover is removed, the underlying soil is no longer protected from the pounding rain and it rapidly loses important nutrients. Grass for cows does not grow on this land for long and is quickly replaced by weeds and shrubs. Silt from the eroded lands washed into oceans, where it buries and kills coral reefs. Most pasture obtained by way of rainforest destruction is abandoned within a decade of its first use for land newly carved from the forest.

A moral and ethical line can be clearly drawn when companies are seeking the psychological "sweet spot" of its customers. On its own website, McDonalds claims corporate responsibility yet it engages in practices that are destroying the health of our children and of our world.

Section 3: The Counter Argument

Any opponent of my position would argue that it is the problem of child obesity is not the fault of McDonalds but the parents. Accordingly, they argue that a balanced diet is obtainable through McDonalds menu choices providing the consumer with yet even more choice. Read the following from www.mcdonalds.com:

"Staying fit and healthy is a priority nowadays for everyone. A leading concern is how the food we eat affects our health. What we each need to