Comments on: Boobus Americanus FoodHabitus Infantilus

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:16:08 +0000

Check out this link: http://flukybard.livejournal.com/4046.html
– a humorous experiment but it does show that food from McDonald’s (or any fast food joint) is un-natural. Since I stopped eating fast food, I have lost lots of weight without even having to exercise! Now if I could only beat my on-and-off sugar addiction…

By: david

david — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:02:06 +0000

I’ve heard one super-large size drink is called the “bladder buster”. I assume that’s marketing genius, or what passes for it with the 20-something crowd. Everywhere I go, I just can’t believe the overweight and out-of-shape condition of young people. The baggy look fad is perfect for their physical condition–like mu-mus for heavy women (Mama Cass!) back in the ’70′s. Except there are so many more of them now. A lot of these young men (I’m a guy, so I’ll comment on the men) look like they could do a whole lot better physically. Many are tall with really good frames. There seems to be no real reason they’re so sloppy and overweight, except, well,–except the world they live in. They fit right in. “In My Day”(smile), they wouldn’t have.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:48:03 +0000

@liberranter –

That sums up my last experience at McDonald’s! (Different purchase price though). ;)

By: MoT

MoT — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:30:47 +0000

The geniuses in marketing do know their audience. You do have to be on the defensive whenever you order anything because they’ll try and hook you with a “larger” size. It’s almost assumed. Anyone ever watch “Super size me” or “Fast food nation”?

By: Mark D

Mark D — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:59:59 +0000

Seeing those huge pops makes me want to blow chunks…. Thanks for putting me on the paleo diet through the links in your always interesting posts Karen

By: John Gillis

John Gillis — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:14:02 +0000

I always thought the aroma from a Micky D’s exhaust vent was tantalizing…but the food godawful tasteless. To give credit where it’s due, their mud isn’t bad…I get the geezer discount…but I don’t trust the ersatz stuff they call half-and-half. Low primitives walking city streets eating out of a McDonald’s bag is a truly disgusting sight.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:51:59 +0000

I agree, that once the dollar is done there will be no dollar menu to get a quick fix from. These foods are addictive, and laced with all kinds of chemicals to have people coming back for me. Besides the occasional cup of coffee and rarely, a sandwich-I don’t make it a habit to eat there. I was often rewarded with a happy meal as a child, for being good at the dentist, etc. While I don’t feel my folks did it out of bad intentions, I don’t think a child should be rewarded with junk food, even if the happy meal toys, PlayMobil, etc. were cool back in those days. Better to reward with things that grow the mind and not the waist.

By: Karen De Coster

Karen De Coster — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:38 +0000

I can’t watch TV much, but if I do, I check out FN – they have some great stuff on there.

By: Karen De Coster

Karen De Coster — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:59:42 +0000

Ha! Great post, Liberranter….

By: miles

miles — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:11:18 +0000

Robin,
You excerpted Senior Vice President of McDonald’s Bill Lamar’s noting of the following: ” senior veep Bill Lamar’s promise to “rekindle the emotional bond our customers have with McDonalds”. Robin, Thats precisely the kind of psychological marketing I was clumsily trying to describe above concerning the jungle gyms at McDonalds. Many of us as kids played on those things with our siblings or other children there. So we have happy childhood memories of the equipment, and probably deeply psychological imprinted reflections of those first sugar/caffeine rushes we experienced while playing on them. Being a tyke on those towering kiddie-wonderland-panorma of monkey-bars-and-colors is probably also associated when one’s family was still intact (before the divorces that at least a third of our parents eventually had) and when we were still a fawned-over child. Is it any wonder that people bring their own kids back to a place that they associate “happy childhood memories” with? Ever had a longing to go “back” to a state fair as an adult, and end up being mucho dissapointed that its really kind of a let-down and not the carnivalesque atmosphere you remembered from childhood? Corporations oft employ marketing strategists with backgrounds in psychology to imprint demand on these emotive and deeply personal levels. I’ll never forget some advice a sociology professor (whom I despised) tried to give our class many years ago back in college (the only thing that guy was right about), he said if you want to make a lot of money, “get two degrees, one in marketing and one in psychology”. The chemical-laden fair at McDonalds and the very carefully-cultivated environment of their resturaunts (all that landscaping and fussy hedgetrimming of the outer facade, and the enormous golden arches are no mistake) is a psycho-emotional pull the the PHOOD-addicted who associates those chemical rushes, and their childhood past with refuelling their addictions at the drive-thru. They know what they are doing in my opinion.