Robert Groom

FAST FOOD NATION

To examine the how, and why of Schlossers’ book Fast Food Nation, where he shows how fast food developed and became the center of American image and society. In order to prove this I will attempt to illustrate how different elements factor in, for this cultural phenomenon to have become such an American cultural norm. First, look at how fast food became such a popular way of eating and living. Carl N. Karcher (owner of Carls Jr, Hardees) is one of the fast food industry’s pioneers. His life seemed at once to be a tale by Horatio Alger, a fulfillment of the American dream, and a warning about unintended consequences. This is one of the factors to its development of an American cultural norm. After World War Two people like Karcher and Ray Kroc(founder of McDonalds) had ideas to give the public a sense of home when it came to meal time, something that would be familiar not only down the street from his or her home, but also fifteen hundred miles away across the country. That let the public believe that McDonalds is like a trusted friend, said executive Ray Bergold. (Schlosser 50) One of the stories is southern California, whose cities became prototypes for the rest of the nation. After World War 2, Southern California had a rich and growing economy with high tech, and military industry jobs. With many young families, they had a need for new homes, in city and communities that would be a bastion for the fast food companies. Whose love of the automobile gave people in large numbers personal transportation. People with freedom, and a good personal income to go out to eat, travel, shop and go to Disneyland, all of which changed us into an insatiable consumer economy. It is what America looks like, what Americans eat, and what Americans believe in and how we look to the rest of the world. Even though these images produce a cheerful and an almost perfect view of what is like to live in this country through the advertising of the fast food corporations. Another Illustration of how easy it was to grow such an industry is the marketing to young kids/children. The head of marketing for Warner Bros Studios Brad Ball, who had been senior vice-president of marketing for McDonalds, had reported that ‘there was little difference between selling films and selling hamburgers” (Schlosser 48), who are able to pressure overworked and tired parents to take them out to eat at these places. A lot of this based on how these corporations target specific age groups with different enticements such as toys, novelties, and games all geared to get them to eat at their restaurants. Another McDonald’s executive said in a press release “to create a more meaningful relationship between Ronald and the kids.” (Schlosser 48) Another has said that he has studied the advertising on “kid customers” for 30 years and said that they should be approach from a more traditional perspective, with traditional values taught from parents or grandparents on nutrition, patriotism, and national defense to make it more believed among children. (Schlosser 44) All of this changing of traditional family values, and beliefs at the hands of the fast food industry has affected economic conditions and political aims as well. Another illustration of this found in the text where it shows how the meat packing industry went from mom and pop farms to powerhouse corporations. That is more powerful than organized unions with almost enough power and money to sway federal inspectors to overlook safety and health violations, so cheaper meat products can be produced, and sold to the consumers. Trying to convince people that the smell from the overpopulated stockyards; that the smell would be, “no different than that which you produce in your kitchen when you cook.” (Schlosser 166) With the IBP (Iowa Beef Packers) using the 1st assembly line system in meat packing it only made it more efficient in meat packing production, as well as more dangerous for the people that worked at these places. A great example of this is that the meatpacking industry has the highest on job accident rate of any regulated industry in the US, where it is sometimes 3 times higher on average. In the text it was researched by the author to say that 40,000 slaughter house accidents a year of employees both men and women that required some sort of medical attention and does not even began to represent the 1000’s that go unreported for whatever the reason. (Schlosser 172) So because of the “IBP revolution” they are responsible for many of the factors that make this is an extremely hazardous industry to work in. (Schlosser 173) In conclusion, many industries have and are trying to influence our modern world, but the fast food industry is a leviathan of a business. They were the first to prove that you could create an identical product and environment at the same time worlds apart from the original and at thousands of different locations virtually at the same time. That the key to good business is uniformity and conformity, and by studying this industry you can see the influence it has had on every man, woman and child here in the US and around the globe, and how communities as well as individual have lost a lot of their character and who they are. Where it is going the future only knows, what should be done about this monster? That is a question that has been asked many times over the years, but no one really knows how to answer it or if they even, want too. I mean I still like McDonald’s hamburgers and French-fries, what would you or I do without them? This will be something only we as a society will know years from now.