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Fast food competitive advantage
Marketing essay for fast food
Marketing essay for fast food
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Godofredo Zapata
Jill Buettner-Ouellette
English 100
16 December 2014
Eating Ourselves To Death: The Hungry Truth About America America fuels itself on fast food. Fast food has become an american staple, and can be seen, heard, and smelled all over the United States. There are fast food restaurants in every major city as well as little towns. Big corporations expand their restaurants by advertising on the radio, tv, and billboards. And are able to bring in new customers coming back practically begging for more food. According to Food and Research Action Center, they estimate that about two-thirds of americans are either overweight or obese. A vast amount of our population is plagued by the rise of type two diabetes, heart disease, liver disease,
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Fast food corporations go to the extent to pursue children by making advertisements specifically targeting children, and even swaying children by giving some sort of toy that attracts the younger customer. Some corporations even produce a whole line of toys that the children can collect if they continue to come back and purchase their products. In “The Hunger Gene” written by Ellen Ruppel Shell, she goes into this controversy stating “ I sit down with the two executives whose companies make and sell these toys. They tell me that their toys are not cheap, that in fact the cost of these ‘premiums’ can sometimes blot out profits from the sale of the kids meal. But the fast food industry's goal in luring in kids is to lock in lifelong customers, not necessarily to turn a quick head.” (Shell 195). A child does not have much knowledge on fast food. When fast food companies for example, Mcdonald's advertises their happy meals, the only thing the child notices is the toy that is being shown. Children can care less about the food as long as they get the toy. For the child, the incentive is the toy that comes along with the food. If a parent decides to bring in a child for the first time into a fast food establishment and purchases any sort of meal along with a toy, the corporations have rightfully done their job correctly. As soon as the child walks out of the restaurant they have …show more content…
U.S News Health has come up with the worlds top ten most obese countries. Amongst the top ten obese nations the United States ranked overall number one in having a population that is obese. They claim that 31.7% of males, 33.9% females, and 25.8%, of children are overweight or obese. (“U.S News Health”). In David Gratzer’s book titled “Where Would You Rather Be Sick?” He talks about the health risks that American’s face in comparison to Canadians. Gratzer states, “Americans have higher rates of diabetes (6.7% vs. 4.7%) arthritis (17.9% vs 16.0%) and high blood pressure (18.3% vs. 13.9%). Americans are also more likely to be obese and live a sedentary lifestyle.”(Gratzer 250). Are mortality rates surpass any other country in the world because most americans consider eating to be a hobby or even leisure time. Us Americans live an unhealthy lifestyle because of the amount of food we consume daily versus the amount of time we actually spend trying to burn the calories we obtained from eating. Americans are not as active as we use to
Fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. Everywhere you turn you can see a fast food restaurant. An industry that modestly began with very few hot dog and hamburger vendors now has become a multi-international industry selling its products to paying customers. Fast food can be found anywhere imaginable. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-through, at stadiums, airports, schools all over the nation. Surprisingly fast food can even be found at hospital cafeterias. In the past, people in the United States used to eat healthier and prepared food with their families. Today, many young people prefer to eat fast food such as high fat hamburgers, French-fries, fried chicken, or pizza in fast
Obesity in the United States, which the media has labeled a national crisis, has also been connected to poverty rates. Big fast food industry’s target poor communities, and spend millions of dollars each year to create advertising that appeals to these specific areas. These industry’s also target naïve children when advertising because they know that eating habits developed in childhood are usually carried into adulthood. Children who are exposed to television advertisements for unhealthy food and who are not educated well enough on good nutrition will grow up and feed their families the same unhealthy foods they ate as kids. A big way fast food giants are able to make certain young people have access to unhealthy food is by strategically placing franchises in close proximity to schools. They will often place three times as many outlets within walking distance of schools than in areas where there are no schools nearby. The way fast food advertising is targeted towards children is very alarming considering how important good nutrition is for young people and how a child’s eating habits can affect their growth and
Millions of American people buy fast food every day without thinking about where, how and why. The ramifications of fast food is impacting the American people both around the waist line and the community where they live at. “As the old saying goes: you are what you eat.” (Schlosser) The customer have made the choices to eat fast food or not. The industry doesn’t care about the customers; studies have shown that the fast food industry is the reason for the rise of American obesity. “Live fast and die young” (Moore); this could not be more true when looking at the impact of the fast food industry.
Obesity is an epidemic in America. Fast food can be compared to the same type of mindless addiction as cigarettes, and can be equally as dangerous. Not only is there a problem with fast food restaurants, but the food industry as a whole. Slaughterhouses that control 80% of the market produce meat in such a way that is not healthy for consumption, in turn the products are doused in harmful chemicals and still served to the public. No wonder the obesity rate in America is 69% and rising. Obesity is a true problem in our country- people are neglecting their health and quite literally eating themselves to death.
Obesity rates have skyrocketed within the last 10-20 years. This is in direct correlation with the diet and exercise habits of cultures. As cultures begin to incorporate different culture’s cuisines into their own cultures, the obesity rate starts to increase. This is most likely caused by their heritage history being accustomed to their culture’s cuisine history. Then diet and exercise come into play as well. We live in a time where technology has almost taken over our lives. In modern day, we can drive wherever we need to go, we do not have to walk everywhere anymore; we do not have to even go to the grocery store anymore because Amazon.com has now made their website into a grocery store in select parts of the country where we pick what we need online and it is delivered to our house. This program is set to go nationwide soon, and eventually globally. This is the epitome of laziness and why different cultures are becoming obese; especially America. Diet and exercise have almost become a thing of the past in America. Yes, there is still a large amount of humans that still exercise daily, but not the average American. The most active age group, worldwide, is 22-34 year olds with an average salary of $20,000 or less (Thompson 2013). Cultures such as the Native Americans, Mexicans, Chileans, and the culture that tops the list; Americans, are among the world’s most obese cultures (Downey 2011).
We need to make people aware of the many side effects of eating fast food. They need to know what they are doing to their bodies. And if America still wants fast food, we need to have people exercise more, a lot of Americans out there eat a lot of fast food and then just don’t exercise. A lot don’t exercise at all. America is becoming obese.
After watching the video and reading the articles, I became motivated to consume more natural foods and less foods that contain artificial sweeteners. I agree with many statements presented throughout both the articles and movies, such as, fad diets do not work, eating natural nutritious foods is the best diet, and that our society is constantly being teased with temptations of sugary and unhealthy foods. I agree with the point that the movie brought up about how the food we eat is no longer food, it is food-like substances that look appealing to us because it is true; many foods have been transformed because of all the artificial ingredients being placed into them.
Eating habits have become a cause of obesity because most people in America decide to take the fast route. Fast food has become so prevalent in the day to day lives of so many families and individuals. The cost and convenience of fast food has led to an increase in consumption, which does not help our cause. According to Carey Polis’ article in The Huffington Post, fast food is about $550 cheaper per year than choosing the healthy option. That means people are more likely to choose a cheeseburger from McDonald’s over fresh fruit and vegetables from the produce section at the grocery store. Along with how cheap it is to get our hands on fast food, the convenience makes it even more difficult to resist. With a fast food restaurant on every corner of every block in town, it makes it much easier for someone to pick up on a meal on their daily commute rather than actually trying to cook something healthy. Choosing fast food is not the most nutritious way to go either. Fast food is filled with sugar, fats, salts, and calories. It is usually low in nutrition and high in what are considered to be “empty” calories. By definition obesity is caused by the excess in...
In the United States, there are many people who believe that if it wasn’t for fast food restaurants, they would be eating healthier and wouldn’t be overweight. People have even tried to sue fast food restaurants for their own self esteem issues. It’s ironic that people actually blame fast food restaurants, such as McDonald’s, for being obese. While fast food may be one of the contributors to the obesity outbreak, it certainly doesn’t stand alone. There are loads of reasons why people living in the United States are overweight. Some of these reasons involve dilemmas within the school arrangements, peer pressure, family genetics, educational issues, and even where a person lives. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion said that “Some illnesses may lead to obesity or weight gain. These may include Cushing's disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome. Drugs such as steroids and some antidepressants may also cause weight gain” (Overweight and Obesity, www.cdc.gov). Even though obesity has become a major problem in the United States today, the percentage in general, of obese human beings would definitely decrease if people would exercise more, eat healthier, and change their diets.
David Robson unites chocolate lovers and ecologists alike with his article asking if junk food is better than healthy food for the environment. He researches the carbon footprint for the production of one hundred calories of food. He doesn’t include any macromolecules in his research, his research is aimed purely at measuring the ratio between carbon dioxide production and calories. Regrettably he reminds readers that this is not an excuse for a root canal, but a thought to keep in the back of our minds when we consider a well-balanced diet (Robson, David). The general field of study his article best represents is Ecology. It relates to the information covered in the textbook and this course through metabolism and ecosystems.
...product toward children promising those children toys and gifts and you can even find inside some of those fast food restaurants games that attract children. Because of what they are doing one in six children are obese, the parents must be blamed but still the fast food industries are the ones who are selling that product and marketing it toward those children.
One way that fast food effects obesity is by advertising their products to children (Miller). In her article Food Advertising Contributes to Obesity, Patti Miller explains that the fast food companies are targeting kids and teenagers by advertising on television. The fast food advertisements are promoting unhealthy products as acceptable food which influences children to choose those meals. The American Psychological Association, an organization focused on improving the lives of individuals, expressed that with the exposure of different fast food commercials, children request to purchase these unhealthy products and cause the parents to be influenced by these requests. This concludes the idea that once children are encouraged by the commercials, they opt to consume the fast food advertised on television. Today, fast food companies are even advertising through schools by offering pizzas and burgers as school lunches, which consequently becomes a daily meal for children and teenagers to consume (Wadden, Brownell,
Obesity is a big social issue in America. Due to the popularity of fast food and other unhealthy foods, more and more Americans are developing health diseases and disorders. We should be getting the correct daily nutrition amount, but because of our fast paced lifestyles we sometimes do not have enough time. Fast food restaurants make it possible to grab a meal and go. We often do not pay attention to the nutrition amount, but are simply looking for a quick bite to eat that will fulfill our hunger. Fast food is assisting in the increase of obesity in America (“Phrase” par.2).
When it comes to the fast-food industry, McDonald’s has found a brilliant way to corner the market. One way I notice McDonald’s has achieved said dominance, is marketing children. For example, my four-year-old daughter always finds McDonald’s to be a cure for her hunger, simply because of the toys in happy meals. She’s seems to be much more intrigued by the toy, than the quality of food. However, I digress!
Food in America, in particular is cheaper than almost anywhere else. As the writer Bryan Walsh from TIME explained, this is because the price of corn has decreased immensely allowing buyers to make food cheap (Thompson). So, if fast food is so cheap, what about the healthier options? Healthier options have actually become more expensive. “A dollar today buys 1,200 calories of potato chips and 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories from fresh fruit,” (Thompson). The food options in fast food generally are also over portioned, high in fat, carbs, and sodium. When customers choose to eat the meals because of how cheap the meals are, they are demonstrating the eating style that is becoming more and more relevant in today’s society. This eating style is gastro-anomie. Gastro-anomie is the “condition of unsatisfying, meaningless eating of foods, and the loss of pleasure to be gained from food,” (Eating Culture). In many cases, advertisers do not tell customers about the poor quality of their food, but rather encourage the customers to buy the food for how cheap the products