McDonalds vs. Consumer Healthier Living

1451 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The history of fast food in America

Over the years fast food has evolved from local burger shops to a multi-billion dollar industry. The fast food industry has revolutionized the way many Americans eat today. Because of the fast food industry’s extreme and rapid growth, many companies are continuing to overlook standards of quality and healthiness of the food served. One major food company is McDonald’s which has shown an enormous lack of business ethics in every step of food preparation and general business management. By using inhumane techniques of slaughter, being self-regulating, and advertising to kids are examples of what McDonald’s is undertaking today. These poor business methods shown by McDonald’s has affected many customers and employees. McDonald should be transparent about their ingredients they put in their food because of health reasons, ethical, and good faith.
As McDonald’s profit margin grow, so does the physical condition of its customer. In Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Super Size Me, he discusses the rising problem of Americans struggling with obesity. In the film, Spurlock sets out to prove that fast food corporations are mostly to responsible when dealing with obesity. Spurlock focuses on McDonald’s for the demonstration because of the corporation’s worldwide attention and financial success. Spurlock consumed McDonald’s every day, three times a day, for thirty days. When the thirty day period was over, Spurlock had gained twenty five pounds, his cholesterol level went up sixty points, and doctors point out that his liver basically turned into fat (Super Size Me). This documentary allows the average American to obtain more information to become more aware of the harmful effects McDonald’s food has on the human body over a period of time.
The ...

... middle of paper ...

... more and more restaurants, and energetic efforts to market their products. This growth in McDonalds and other fast food companies seems to link to the growing of America’s health problems.
McDonalds was established about sixty years ago and has dramatically changed. The fast food industries’ lack of concern when dealing with the quality of food, and ethically wrong business practices cannot go ignored. With demand for fast food constantly increasing, solutions should be made accordingly to meet these demands without practicing business ethics that are morally wrong. The time has come for McDonalds to realize the consequences of selling unhealthy food and using morally wrong business practices. Spending more time concentrating on the consumer’s health and well-being, rather than concentrating only on profit margins is the kind of change the fast food industry needs.

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis: Super Size Me

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fast food, while a quick alternative to cooking, has always been known to be less healthy than traditional preparations, but the extent of its health benefits or detriments was not known until a lawsuit came out which inspired documentarian Morgan Spurlock to engage in a 30 day experiment. The resultant documentary specifically targeted McDonald’s, the largest fast food chain in the world, which also happens to be a major recipient of lawsuits linking obesity and their food. Spurlock endeavored to spend a thirty day period eating nothing but food that came from the golden arches, with the rules that he would supersize only when asked, and every time he was asked, and that he would have everything from the menu at least once. In the 2004 film Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock explores the concept that McDonald’s contributes to the nation’s obesity problem through the utilization of statistics and scientific evidence as a logical appeal, comedy and repulsive qualities as an emotional appeal, and s...

    Read More

  • How Does Morgan Spurlock Use Ethos In Supersize Me

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    When people consume supersized fast food meals, is the food to blame when they themselves become supersized? Morgan Spurlock takes on the challenge of eating only McDonald's every day, three times a day, for thirty days straight to see how these meals affects the physique and general health of a human body. The Film Supersize Me uses logos, pathos, and ethos to effectively persuade the audience that eating fast foods, namely McDonald's, has horrible side effects.

    Read More

  • Ethos Pathos Logos In Super Size Me

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    America has always been about being the biggest nation: the biggest houses, the biggest cars, biggest cities and unfortunately the biggest bodies. There is no doubt that fast food is causing major health problems for many Americans today. In his documentary, Super Size Me, released in 2004 Morgan Spurlock decides to eat only food from McDonald’s for thirty days to see how it would affect his health. Spurlock starts out healthier than the average man for his age. Throughout the film, we can see that his health gradually degenerates and reaches a critical point, before his thirty days are over. Super Size Me is very persuasive in showing the negative effect in fast food restaurants by using logos, pathos, and ethos.

    Read More

  • Supersize Me: The Rhetoric of French Fries

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    The United States of America has long been considered a “big nation”, whether is has the biggest cities, houses, and on a negative note, biggest people. In 2003, Morgan Spurlock, a healthy-bodied film director, set on a quest to show America the detrimental effects of the fast food industry and raise awareness on the controversial issue. He produced the documentary “Supersize Me”, where McDonald’s meals were consumed for every meal of the day for thirty days. His film was released to movie theatres so that people could understand the devastating effects of McDonald’s on his body in a very short time span. At the end of his experiment, Morgan gained twenty-five pounds, developed a thirteen percent body mass increase, cholesterol skyrocketed immensely, and fat accumulation in his liver rose to. He became depressed and he only felt happy and in no pain when he was eating the fast food. By using ethos, logos, and pathos, “Supersize Me” became one of the most watched documentaries in the United States. Without these appeals, this documentary would not have developed the effect that it did.

    Read More

  • "Super-Size Verses Fat Head: How Fast Food Effects Our Lives

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    Super-size was a 2004 documentary film directed and stared in by Morgan Spurlock, who wanted to prove that like cigarettes, fast food “McDonalds” is just as harmful to The American population of the United States. He got the idea from two girls who were in a lawsuit with McDonalds, They blamed “McDonalds” for having gained so much weight, and they were also blaming “McDonalds” for corrupting their eating habits. The lawsuit failed and that was the reason Spurlock, decided to take on his 30 day diet of “McDonalds” food eating it (meals) three times a day, to show the probability he would gain a lot of weight and prove a significant point to “the citizens of United States of America.”

    Read More

  • Super size me

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    McDonald’s is killing Americans, at least that is what Morgan Spurlock believes. In his documentary Super Size Me he embarks on a quest to not only describe and use himself as an example of the growing obesity trend, but to offer the viewers with base-line nutritional knowledge that will allow them to draw their own informed conclusions. Spurlock's primary intention is to prove through self-experimentation that eating solely McDonald's food is dangerous. His secondary intention is to denounce the rising obesity rate in American by using statistics, his own research, and the opinions of experts. His broader message is for a general audience while he tailors select chapters towards more specific demographics such as parents or McDonald's themselves.

    Read More

  • Super Size Me, by Morgan Spurlock

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... the health risks that are caused from eating McDonald's and other fast food, Spurlock incorporates many visual and textual pieces into this documentary. This includes documenting his personal life throughout the experiment and his final health analysis graph from the start to the end. He also includes many instances of evidence to help support his argument. He includes his own personal experience, the experience from other individuals, and expert testimonies. By including all of this, Spurlock was able to justify his reasoning towards criticizing the fast food restaurants for their role in the obesity epidemic. The techniques used by Morgan Spurlock is very effective in detailing the causes and effects of obesity in order to make people more aware of the situation.

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity: Fast Food Companies Are To Blame

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Focusing on the well being of the customers should be the main focus of any major company, especially fast food companies. By reducing the amount of unhealthy choices for children and replacing them with nutritional foods, the nation’s youth will benefit.

    Read More

  • Market Research Implementation: McDonalds

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    When researching McDonald’s through online sources, it is clear that nutrition is a major concern of the public visiting the fast-food chain. Secondary research conducted shows that there are several case studies and other secondary source searches around the same topic. McDonald’s has often been the center of nutritional attention within the fast-food industry. Secondary research shows that the restaurant has recently made changes to the American Happy Meal to reduce the amount of French fries offered and replace the portion with fruit (Strom, 2011). In a study conducted by McDonald’s a secondary source reports the meal cuts calories by 20% for the children’s meal (Strom, 2011). This is a critical move by the organization on children’s obesity is currently a hot topic within food chains and attention is driven by the Obama administration. Secondary research also shows that although the public has major health concerns with the food chain, profits are increasing during a high point of an economic recession (Dahan & Gittens, 2008). Acco...

    Read More

  • The Super-Size Me Documentary

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    McDonald’s, one of America’s fastest growing fast food restaurants, has made more than its share of money within the last twenty years serving more than 46 million people daily. They have twice as many restaurants as Burger King and more restaurants than KFC, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell Combined. Often children have the dream of eating fast food for every meal of every day. Well, Morgan Spurlock took the challenge to see how dangerous it would be to eat McDonalds for every meal. He also took the challenge in response to a lawsuit against McDonalds by a family whose children became obese by the contents of its meals. Directed and starring Morgan Spurlock, who is married to a vegan chef and a healthy man for his age, Super-Size Me is a film that followed Spurlock for 31 days as he follows certain rules set by a series of physicians. He was only allowed to meals off the McDonalds menu including water. Also, he couldn’t exercise but had to walk the same amount of steps as the average American. Filmed all over the United States, Super-Size Me was made to inform the public on the manufactured foods they consume daily. The film also raises awareness on the dangers of what manufactured foods do to the body. Super-Size Me showed how one of the most popular fast food restaurants around today may be leading future generations to severe health problems.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of McDonalds Health Menu

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    McDonalds is one of the most well known fast food restaurants in the world. It is so popular that it sells seventy-five hamburgers every second and is shockingly also the worlds largest toy distributor (Lubin, and Badkar.) The powerful company is an overwhelming influence not only in the worlds economy, but also the worlds holistic lifestyle and health; therefore, McDonalds must be carefully monitored-carefully monitored meaning every move, every change, every single action the company makes needs to be a healthy one. Since the McDonalds business is unbelievably large, it has to manufacture a lot of food, and in a fast food business more in numbers means lower quality. But the food served isn’t lower quality. The food is not even food. It is poison! The chain restaurants food that is sold to the world population contains over 70 cancer-promoting ingredients (Roberts), not to mention it also contains preservatives that are butane-based, bleached flour, and the main ingredient found in silly putty (Breyer). It is clear that McDonalds does not sell food that anyone should be eating; yet, it poisons 68 million people a day, or in other words one percent of the population (Lubin, and Badkar.) 68 million people poisoned every single day. This atrocity absolutely without doubt needs to be stopped.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Social Media In Business?

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 2014 Netflix added several documentaries that shed light on the corrupt practices of the fast food industry. Food Inc. and Fed Up shows how animals are treated in the farms McDonalds owns, shows how the animals are induced with hormones which reduces the quality of the meat and sheds light on the brutal chemical filled process of how their food is created. Also during this time, McDonald’s, around the world were facing multiple health concerns including contaminated chicken and beef according to the Economist. Word began to spread through social media about McDonalds poor practices and how they put their customers at risk to save money. The tone of the brand had become negative on social media and other major news outlets which caused the masses to conform to the negative perception of the brand. What McDonalds was doing was not ethical and their profits dropped as a result. Bloomberg in December of 2014, reported that McDonalds had the “lowest sales decline in more than a decade”. McDonalds has since made effort to rebrand the company, by offering healthier alternatives, using safer production practices and partnering with ethically trusted brands like Chobani to gain back the trust of its millennial consumers. Bloomberg has reported that although McDonald’s numbers have not completely improved, sales did get better as a result of

    Read More

  • McDonald's: Ethical Responsibility

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    Small business owners of fortune 500 companies, democrats, republicans, men and women all have ethical responsibilities that should always be considered. Mc Donald’s is a well-known restaurant around the world. Some people enjoy this fast food restaurant and also have made Mc Donald’s one of the leading fast food companies. Although, Mc Donald may have some tasty food, there are still many critics that think Mc Donald’s may have a lot of ethical issues and company violations. Some consider being ethical is simply defined as knowing the difference between what is considered good and evil. However, ethics is defined as moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior, and the practices that violate them. The practices of unethical behaviors, by various fast food corporations, like McDonalds have become of great concern to our society.

    Read More

  • McDonald's Ethical Behavior, or Not?

    2210 Words  | 5 Pages

    McDonalds is one of the largest food chains globally and in the U.S. It has one of the most recognized symbols with the golden arches. There are more than 34,000 local McDonalds around the world and they serve approximately 69 million people in 118 countries every single day. They also spend about two billion dollars on advertisements each year. The ethical issue that I want to address in this essay is whether or not McDonalds is ethical for advertising and selling obese and unhealthy foods to its customers. I believe it is important to explore this organization because McDonalds is one of the largest and most well-known food chains around the world. It is important to know that an organization as successful and large as them is also ethical with their approach. If a corporation as successful and profitable as McDonalds can be ethical with their selling and advertising schemes then just about any other organization or corporation striving towards that same goal can be too.

    Read More

  • Fast Food Obesity Essay

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, fast food should not be held responsible for the obesity epidemic. Between the numerous other options that are just as unhealthy, the improvements the fast food industry is making, and our body’s adaptations that are backfiring; fast food may be part of the problem, but not the actual cause. And yet the fast food industry gets the blame. And attempts to change this image, like the McLean Deluxe, end in failure; forcing them to rely on subtle changes to their menu items. In the end, however, I doubt fast food could be forced to close by the wholesome food movement, there are too many who rely on fast food for a quick meal.

    Read More

More about McDonalds vs. Consumer Healthier Living

Open Document