JCOM 2300 Thoughts...Super Size Me

I will never eat fast food again. Okay maybe that’s a little harsh. But my mind has definitely been changed after watching Super Size Me, a documentary about American obesity and Morgan Spurlock, an independent filmmaker who follows 5 rules …

1. he will eat McDonalds everyday for 30 days
2. he can only buy food from McDonalds and has to try every menu item at least once
3. he has to eat 3 meals a day
4. If they ask if he wants his meal supersized, he has to say yes … hence the name.
5. He will attempt to walk as much as a typical American citizen, averaging 5,000 standardized distance steps per day

Within the first 5 minutes, I learned since 1980, American obesity has doubled and that in the fattest state, Mississippi 1 out of every 4 are obese. Right now, obesity is 2nd to smoking in preventable deaths and Fortune Magazine came out with an article, Is Fat the next tobacco? Spurlock’s reasoning for the experiment was to prove the reasoning behind the spreading of obesity in America and the validity of lawsuits that were filed against McDonalds foods for being physiologically addictive and physically harming. In the beginning, Spurlock was in top shape, all his blood tests ran well, and he weighed in at 185.5 lbs., a perfect weight for his 6’2” height. Within 5 days, he gained 195 lbs, 5% of his body weight. At his second weigh in, after 12 days, he had gained 17 lbs. He describing going “McCrazy”, and having “McSweats” and “McTwitching”. At the end of his experiment, Spurlock had gained 24.5 lbs., a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of 230 and experienced chest pressure, accumulating fat to his liver, depression and other physical and physiological problems. After watching the film, I wondered why McDonalds is still, to this day, one of the top fast food restaurant chains in the world. I came to the conclusion that McDonalds has excellent marketing, advertising and public relations teams. In the documentary, Spurlock said per year, food and vegetables spent $2 Million on advertising, Hershey Foods spent $200 million on advertising, while McDonalds spent over $1.4 billion on advertising. I’m sure that number is even higher now since the documentary was filmed in 2004. It just goes to show that even though a company may be corrupt or not the best for society, they will be fine if they have good PR and advertising.