Blog #6

I’m not sure if everyone else feels the same way, but my life pretty much revolves around food. My mom has always joked that while we’re eating the current meal, we’re already planning and thinking about our next one. For someone who loves to eat, you can only imagine how enticing the various food commercials can be. In particular, you can almost always see a fast food commercial during every commercial break on any channel. There has been a common theme among the various fast food restaurants as of late, that fast food is marketed as a solution or answer to many of life’s problems. I think we all know that fast food is convenient, but arguably more important than its convenience is the fact that it is cheaper than most other options. I certainly feel that the fast food industry contributes heavily to the massive obesity problem that plagues our country. Unfortunately, going to the grocery store isn’t always the most exciting activity (or convenient for that matter), especially when the prices for healthy foods are typically more expensive than the unhealthier stuff. It might seem like I’m stating the obvious, but fast food companies have found a way to trick us into thinking that fast food is the solution to pretty much any problem.

The two restaurants that stand out to me are the big two: McDonalds and Taco Bell. In the past year, I’ve especially noticed the “fast food is the solution/answer” theme among most of their advertising. Taco Bell introduced their breakfast menu back in 2014, but last year they came out with a super catchy commercial advertising this specific menu. Watch the commercial if you want (here’s the link) but if you don’t have the time, the commercial provides their food as a solution to having overslept. To top it off, Taco Bell pairs this scenario with a super catchy jingle: “When your morning is hell, just go to Taco Bell.” Since this first commercial, Taco Bell has thought up different scenarios using this same catchy jingle to basically say that their food can be the solution to any problem. McDonald’s is another user of this “our food is the solution” type of advertising. Recently, McDonald's released its “1, 2, and 3, dollar menu”, and they’ve taken the same approach as Taco Bell with their advertising. The various commercials highlight life problems that apparently McDonald’s can fix. For example, one commercial represents a man ordering in a nontraditional way by stating: “Hi I’d like the ‘we haven’t been to the grocery store in weeks meal’”. The man identifies his problem, and the McDonald’s worker offers the solution with their food. Now this example is an answer to a food related problem, but the McDonald’s has made similar commercials where someone orders the “we just won the big game” meal. In truth it is a clever way to advertise, but really I just think that these fast food industries are trying to bamboozle people into thinking that their food is THE answer. Back to the first McDonald’s commercial.. “We haven’t been to the grocery store in weeks”, here’s a thought.. go to the grocery store? Going to the grocery store isn’t always the easy answer, but fast food isn’t the only answer either. In summary, I feel that fast food industries have successfully constructed their food as the easy and obvious answer to many of life’s situations.