Description
Demonstrating the parallel that can be drawn between fast food and the ideology values such as the fast pace life and consumerism, it is important to stress that several values resulted from the formation and the overwhelming intrusion of Fast Food into American life.
A lot of companies strive to follow the tendency of transforming children into consumers. Children have great spending power and influence in the household and they are considered to turn into the consumers of the future. If children are tied to a particular product from an early age, they can have a lifelong commitment to that brand, and brand loyalty is created. It is important to understand that such a situation can be observed in the fast-food industry with such high profile brand names, such as McDonald’s and Coca Cola, which can lose their position in the fast-food market.
The development of fast-food brands in society contributes to the human way of life a lot and makes people form a certain unity with the company. In that way, the teenagers and then the adults form a specific attitude toward going to a fast-food restaurant.
Another value formed during the era of fast food is consumerism. The general tendency to obtain products is one of the explanations of consumerism. The constant promotion actions, such as Big Mac, Burger King, Triple Sandwich, urge the consumer to have more and more, and as stated in “Fast Food Nation”, for example, the typical Cola drink in the fifties was approximately 8, 1130 oz., yet now it is about 12oz. for a child and 30oz. for an adult. This problem itself resulted in another phenomenon covering the problem of maintaining a healthy condition.
One more point that is going to be discussed is implementing the fast-paced life ideology. As the title, fast food is self-explanatory the consumer is pushed toward keeping the fast pace of life. Eating fast, spending fast, and working fast are some of the apparent influences, which reduced the value of the factors mentioned above. The factor of working fast could be implemented as another issue stated in Schlosser where the fast-paced rhythm is kept in their employment ideology. The replacement of personnel percentage is up to 400% where a typical employee (according to Schlosser two-thirds of the employers is under 20) is quitting his/her job after 4 months. The fast pace influences the employers in a way that he lacks the attachment to a job.
The research addresses marketing strategies and means that the fast-food companies used to attain the mentioned effects, e.g. Channel One, in which lots of advertisements for fast food companies are broadcast. Channel One realizes the important link between monetary means and educational ends. It was stated that making a profit was more important than the happiness of American children.
Thesis
The role of ISAs to establish ideology has been taken by companies, specifically in the fast-food industry, through education and media services to perpetuate capitalism.
Conclusion
The fast food industry in forming their ideologies is in some way taking advantage of children’s innocence, exposing them to child-targeted marketing strategies to keep the capitalist society in order. In the end, fast food is not more about food, it is about culture, a way of life, the American way of life.
Bibliography
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