¶ … spanned Old Highway 31, Broadway, State Route 119, High Street, and even the Champs-Elysees. They have elicited feelings of mouth-watering salvation from children in the backseat of cars for generations and tugged on the deeply imprinted visions of the American Dream from the adults in the front; having visited them already, adolescents on the streets of American cities clutch the greasy paper bags on the way home from school, gabbing with their friends and sharing their French fries; in downtown New York, they grace Wall Street with a top-hatted, white-gloved greeter at the front door. The Golden Arches permeate American culture, all walks of life, classes, ethnicities, social stratii, and geographies in a way that no other commercial space has. McDonald's, a leader in the worldwide fast food industry, has capitalized on its commercial ingenuity, successful marketing, globalization, and place in the American imagination by careful recognition of the cultural mores under which it operates.
In 1954, Ray Kroc wagered his entire home mortgage and life savings to become the sole distributor of the Multimixer, a brand-new, technologically advanced five-spindled milk shake machine. At the same time, two brothers in San Bernardino, California were busy flipping hamburgers from their little road-size stand named after their family: McDonald's Hamburgers. Kroc was amazed at the speed with which they delivered the food to the customers, and immediately suggested that the brothers abandon their single-restaurant business plan for a several-location chain, each of which he could supply with eight Multimixers. As the story goes, Dick and Mac McDonald turned to him and asked, "Who could we get to open them for us?" "Well," Kroc answered," what about me?"
Fifty years later, McDonald's is the largest single purchaser of beef, pork, and potatoes in the nation; internationally,...
McDonald's locations vary; from rural Alabama locations on crossing highways and state routes, suburban Washington D.C. And Minneapolis-St. Paul, to the city streets of New York, L.A., and Baghdad, covering every locale in between. At the same time, despite the wide variety of locations and demographics with which McDonald's comes into play, their success is based on a very standardized special construction marketing one singular idea: the American Dream.
In the American imagination, nothing is more nationally oriented than football, Fourth of July fireworks, and hamburgers. "Public spaces can reflect and reinforce a culture's political ideology and power structure," something upon which McDonald's capitalized. Flipping hamburgers and serving milk shakes, for merely fifteen cents, an Average Joe could buy a little piece of the American Dream. The stands grew in numbers under the ambitious direction of Kroc's commercial prowess, and it was not long before the Des Plaines area saw its own Golden Arches.
The immediate success of the company outlasted the general trends seen in the American economy; by not selling a fad but instead a classic idea, McDonald's created a market concept that would be able to not only fast take hold, but remain strong. Integral in the execution of this commercialization of the American Dream was the preeminent image of the Golden Arches, serving as an easily recognizable trademark. While other companies have changed and morphed their exteriors over time, McDonald's has purposefully remained true to its visual image.
Each McDonald's location is highlighted by the golden arches of the M. overhead, and while the exterior might play on local traditions or a specific target audience -- for example, the doorman at the Wall Street location, or the glass-and-steel looks of…
