A "Happy" Meal

At a young age, our generation had already been centered in the crosshairs of one of the largest marketing systems in history. We were no longer children to be nurtured and protected, but now were a profitable demographic. The simple change in culture would soon serve as the catalyst for a much larger domino effect in our culture, our economy, and our diet. The shift in viewing our generation came about recently, when the Fast Food Giant (FFG) noticed increasing numbers of children eating at their restaurants.
Children have always been in restaurants, but the FFG's targeted system has changed this around. Rather than having the children with their parents, the FFG wanted the children to bring their parents. This simple shift in the family hierarchy was achieved only through extensive marketing, which we have all felt. I remember loving to go to McDonald's on the weekends where it was allowable in the budget. It was all about the bright colors, the “tasty” food, and the cheap plastic toys. All of these positive experiences served to create a quite potent system of operant conditioning, and to hook the youth on Fast Food. However, the darker side of the FFG has been exposed in the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.
This conditioning to enjoy the plastic, unchanging environment of the FFG has also brought with it a darker side, the conditioning to enjoy the food. Our nation's youth, myself included, gets a fond feeling when they think of their favorite fast food place, and has fond memories of the food. However, the food that we seem to be enjoying, and seem to crave actually poisons us, and rots us from the inside out. The quality control is terrible enough to result in high counts of fecal coliform bacteria, or feces, which is found in dangerously high amounts in the meat. We don't know what we're eating, and that is where our targeted generation is flawed. The FFG has painted us a “Happy” meal to enjoy, and expects us to enjoy it without question. The dangerous part of this isn't the food that we're eating, it's that we're buying what they're selling. The dangers of the FFG are many, but one of Schlosser's points brings this idea across. “...Market research has found that children often recognize a brand logo before they can recognize their own name.” (Schlosser, FFN, p.43) The very targeted advertising, coupled with the conditioning that the restaurants provide make for a very addicting combination, “hooking” a demographic just as a pusher hooks a user.
The drug-like FFG has entered almost every part of our culture. This is painted perfectly by my elementary education. Every Thursday was Burger Day, where for lunch the school brought in several hundred Burger King Whoppers. We weren't anywhere near a fast food restaurant, but we were still under the arm of the FFG. On weekends, whenever the budget would allow it, lunch on Saturday was to be had at either a McDonald's, or at somewhere local. It was several years before my family ate anywhere but McDonald's, after my family finally convinced my siblings and I that the local places tasted better. My childhood was punctuated by the FFG, as was my slightly older youth. In junior high, we spent a lot of time traveling. One fond memory was of a Germany trip, where we got derailed from going to the dinner place we were hoping for. Instead of a fancy dinner planned for 7pm, we ended up having to settle for a McDonald's at 10pm. Even halfway around the world, the FFG has spread its grip. This reach has been expanding, but there are pockets of hope.
The city of Humboldt, CA, has no chains in it. The local people don't support any outside businesses, or anything that is a mass chain. A year ago, a Taco Bell moved in, and was subsequently the first Taco Bell to go under. There is no support for chains, or for anything that is part of the FFG. Though our generation has been targeted, and quite successfully, there are spreading examples of resistance, and spreading information about the drug-like follies that this giant brings us.