Globalization of the Fast Food Industry
English 120
11-22-09
Globalization of the Fast Food Industry Imagine a world where almost everyone is overweight, and cultural and family traditions do not exist. Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal explores the effects of the spread of fast-food companies like McDonald's to other countries. In his chapter “Global Realization” Eric Schlosser claims that “The global expansion of American fast food is homogenizing cultural identities; like Las Vegas, it offers “a brief sense of hope… that most brilliant illusion of all, a loss that feels like winning” Schlosser carefully selects and organizes information to advance his claim by using direct evidence as well as more subtle methods. In order to critically evaluate the validity of his argument, it is important to explore different perspectives of this issue by taking into consideration about what others have to say regarding this matter before coming to a conclusion. Schlosser illustrates how Las Vegas and fast food is similar by using indirect comparisons between the two in order to give readers a general idea on how the fast food industry exploits its customers through illusions just like Las Vegas does. He first starts off by explaining that like McDonald's, “Las Vegas is the fulfillment of social and economic trends now seeping from the American West to the farthest reaches of the globe” (Schlosser 533). With its artificial indoor rain-forests and Elvis impersonators, it seems like Las Vegas set the theatrical standards for cities all around the world much like how fast food companies such as McDonald's uses happy meal themes, cheap prices, fast service, and drive-thru convenience to lure customers. Schlosser describes Vegas as “an entirely man-made creation, a city that lives for the present, that has little connection to its surrounding landscape, that cares little about its own past” (533).McDonald's is much like Vegas because it too is entirely
11-22-09
Globalization of the Fast Food Industry Imagine a world where almost everyone is overweight, and cultural and family traditions do not exist. Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal explores the effects of the spread of fast-food companies like McDonald's to other countries. In his chapter “Global Realization” Eric Schlosser claims that “The global expansion of American fast food is homogenizing cultural identities; like Las Vegas, it offers “a brief sense of hope… that most brilliant illusion of all, a loss that feels like winning” Schlosser carefully selects and organizes information to advance his claim by using direct evidence as well as more subtle methods. In order to critically evaluate the validity of his argument, it is important to explore different perspectives of this issue by taking into consideration about what others have to say regarding this matter before coming to a conclusion. Schlosser illustrates how Las Vegas and fast food is similar by using indirect comparisons between the two in order to give readers a general idea on how the fast food industry exploits its customers through illusions just like Las Vegas does. He first starts off by explaining that like McDonald's, “Las Vegas is the fulfillment of social and economic trends now seeping from the American West to the farthest reaches of the globe” (Schlosser 533). With its artificial indoor rain-forests and Elvis impersonators, it seems like Las Vegas set the theatrical standards for cities all around the world much like how fast food companies such as McDonald's uses happy meal themes, cheap prices, fast service, and drive-thru convenience to lure customers. Schlosser describes Vegas as “an entirely man-made creation, a city that lives for the present, that has little connection to its surrounding landscape, that cares little about its own past” (533).McDonald's is much like Vegas because it too is entirely