Fast Food Nation Research

Miranda Ortega

Mrs. Goulding

AP English p.6

17 Dec. 2014

Fast Food Nation Research: The effects of Advertising

    When craving a fast food restaurant, the images of the commercials plays an important role to the customers order. Eric Schlosser stated that, “A generation ago, three-quarters of the money used to buy food in the United States was spent to prepare meals at home. Today about half of the money used to buy food is spent at restaurants--mainly at fast food restaurants.” Schlosser went ‘behind the scenes’ of every popular fast food chain and discovered what Americans were eating, was quite shocking. There were accidents in the factories, that killed people, un-sanitized meat that was contaminated with E Coli-,and harsh working conditions as well as dirty water and unhealthy food fed to the cattle. The spark of fast food chains evolved at a rapid pace due to the aggression of advertising.

    Advertising was the one technique that overlaps with all of the other techniques fast food chains developed between the early 1900s and now. The flexibility of advertising is certainly high given the fact that it can go anywhere from advertising in schools to advertising in foreign countries. Advertising has also led to synergy, meaning two companies coming together to work together in promoting each others product. Because fast food chains put a great amount of effort into advertising, they spend about $3 billion dollars on television ads alone. This is causing the rate of children obesity to come to a staggering height. As the obesity rate increases, the profit of fast food increases as well. Advertising is meant to attract a particular audience to buy their product. Advertising is too aggressive for children and teenagers, and overwhelming for those who feel pressured into buying products they don’t need.

    The efforts put into advertising have escalated dramatically since they have first began. To prove this claim Schlosser wrote,”Although the fast food...