McDonald S And Real Lettuce
Peggy Sue
Professor McIntosh
English 101
4 November XXXX
The Golden Arches Go Green: McDonald’s and Real Lettuce
In recent years, the country has begun to take nutrition more seriously. While there are still those who choose to eat poorly, current studies and philosophies are swaying more and more people to eat healthily. For decades, McDonald’s has been known not as a place that reflects this health-conscious philosophy, but rather as a mecca of supersized indulgences, like the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.. But, they are trying to change this image of anti-health. McDonald’s advertisement in the July-August 2004 issue of Men’s Health magazine is a highly magnified head of lettuce, the centerpiece of a new healthful menu that McDonald’s is trying to promote. This ad is an obvious attempt by McDonald’s to remake its image into a health-conscious restaurant that is committed to its customers.
The ad’s underlying message emphasizes for viewers the real over the artificial, a quality in both McDonald’s food and its relationship with its customers. Through vivid graphics, McDonald’s shows, rather than tells, viewers that its ingredients are wholesome. The head of lettuce that creates the ad’s entire background is the picture of mouth-watering wholesomeness. Enlarged to many times its natural size, the lettuce reveals its sharp, spring-green edges and beads of water standing on its leaves, presumably from recent washing. The fast-food chain could have bombarded the public with nutritional statistics about its food items, as many other restaurants do, but it seems to recognize that numbers can begin to read like cold data from a science textbook. Instead, McDonald’s invites us to take a closer look at its ingredients, a chance to verify for ourselves that the lettuce is as “pure” and “fresh” as it claims. The lettuce does in fact look “so crisp” that we can easily believe it would produce a “crunch” if we bit into it, just as McDonald’s reports.
The ad’s copy
Professor McIntosh
English 101
4 November XXXX
The Golden Arches Go Green: McDonald’s and Real Lettuce
In recent years, the country has begun to take nutrition more seriously. While there are still those who choose to eat poorly, current studies and philosophies are swaying more and more people to eat healthily. For decades, McDonald’s has been known not as a place that reflects this health-conscious philosophy, but rather as a mecca of supersized indulgences, like the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.. But, they are trying to change this image of anti-health. McDonald’s advertisement in the July-August 2004 issue of Men’s Health magazine is a highly magnified head of lettuce, the centerpiece of a new healthful menu that McDonald’s is trying to promote. This ad is an obvious attempt by McDonald’s to remake its image into a health-conscious restaurant that is committed to its customers.
The ad’s underlying message emphasizes for viewers the real over the artificial, a quality in both McDonald’s food and its relationship with its customers. Through vivid graphics, McDonald’s shows, rather than tells, viewers that its ingredients are wholesome. The head of lettuce that creates the ad’s entire background is the picture of mouth-watering wholesomeness. Enlarged to many times its natural size, the lettuce reveals its sharp, spring-green edges and beads of water standing on its leaves, presumably from recent washing. The fast-food chain could have bombarded the public with nutritional statistics about its food items, as many other restaurants do, but it seems to recognize that numbers can begin to read like cold data from a science textbook. Instead, McDonald’s invites us to take a closer look at its ingredients, a chance to verify for ourselves that the lettuce is as “pure” and “fresh” as it claims. The lettuce does in fact look “so crisp” that we can easily believe it would produce a “crunch” if we bit into it, just as McDonald’s reports.
The ad’s copy
Cited: McDonald’s Corporation. Advertisement. Men’s Health July-Aug. 2004: 95. Print.