Trusted Friend Summary of Eric Scholosser's Essay

¶ … Trusted Friend Summary of Eric Scholosser's Essay There are very few living persons in the United States above the age of 5 or 6 who do not know about the Walt Disney Company (Disneyland and Disney World) or about McDonald's ("I'm lovin' It!" is their current ad slogan) fast food franchises. But it is not likely that many Americans know the history of McDonald's and how their founder, Ray Kroc, built this chain from the ground up with guile, guts, aggressive marketing and by making political deals.

Nor are many Americans aware of the Walt Disney's anti-union strategies or the fact that he was a secret FBI informer. Disney sided with the House Un-American Activities Committee -- chaired by disgraced U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy -- and supported the idea of the House of Representatives blacklisting Hollywood actors and writers. In Schlosser's book (Chapter 2) the author traces the steps that Kroc and Disney followed to achieve their smashing successes in their fields.

The way that Kroc marketed his greasy French fries and burgers and sugary shakes to children was brilliant, but in hindsight, the public now knows that fatty foods that are also high in sodium are not healthful for children to eat. As for Disney, he was also brilliant at marketing his stories and characters to children, using corporate sponsorships and employing the concept of "synergy" to subcontract the manufacturing of his characters' toys for greater product recognition.

Basically Schlosser was linking Disney and Kroc at the hip so to speak, in terms of their near-fanatical drive to profit and expand their empires -- on the backs of American children. Of course Schlosser's essay is not just about Disney and Kroc; it is just one chapter in his book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, which takes the whole American junk food / fast food industry to task for the terribly unhealthy meals that are to be had in those establishments.

Schlosser also takes issue with the way that fast food is marketed to kids on television, in magazines, in places like Disneyland and elsewhere. An Intriguing Passage "The Nixon administration supported the McDonald's bill [to lower the pay for 16-and-17-year-olds] and permitted McDonald's to raise the price of its Quarter Pounders, despite the mandatory wage and price controls restricting other fast food chains… [which] sparked Democratic accusations of influence peddling." Kroc later arrogantly, defiantly called critics of the deal he got from Nixon and Congress "sons of bitches" (Schlosser, 37).

In 1972, the year of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon was running for reelection and because both Kroc and Disney supported conservative causes, they both backed Nixon. In fact Kroc donated $250,000 to the Nixon reelection campaign. The Nixon-Kroc connection was because Kroc wanted Nixon to support the so-called "McDonald's Bill" that would give employers the legal right to pay young people sixteen and seventeen years of age "20% lower than the minimum wage" (Schlosser, p. 37).

It would be hard to imagine anything that smacked more of a dirty political back-room deal than Kroc giving Nixon a quarter of a million dollar campaign donation and in turn receiving Nixon's public support for raising the price of McDonald's Quarter Pounders when other fast food chains couldn't raise their prices (there was a national freeze on all price increases at that time). At the same time Kroc's $250,000 contribution bought Nixon's support for paying kids less money than they were already making to work at McDonald's.

Also, how hypocritical of Kroc to establish his nationwide successful hamburger chain by basically marketing slick promotions (including kid's toys, Ronald McDonald the company clown the kids loved) and clever, captivating fast food television advertising to children. As children they watch cartoon programs that feature highly appealing fast food advertisements (especially McDonald's) designed to propagandize children to hook them on burgers and fries.

But wait, when those same children get to high school and want a part time job at McDonald's, Kroc used his money and influence -- that he achieved by marketing his unhealthy products to kids -- to cut their slim wages from about $1.60 an hour to about $1.28 an hour, according to Schlosser.

Looking to the past, or to the present political dynamics in Washington, D.C., there is nothing new about an elected official or a candidate for office receiving cash from corporate interests, and then voting to support that corporation's pet projects, or allowing that corporation to get a special tax break. An example that is readily available in the news is that of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who is the House Budget Chairman.

Ryan just a few months ago was advocating closing tax loopholes that big corporations are now getting, and the savings from closing those loopholes, he explained, would help pay for the tax cuts he was proposing (Bendery, 2011). He told a National Public Radio journalist that "…the people in the top tax brackets are the ones who enjoy most of the loopholes and deductions" (Bendery, p. 1). However, the truth is that Ryan has been trying for years.