Fast Food companies selfishly brainwash and manipulate younger kids in order to increase their profits. For the past six decades the fast food industry has been a big part of the American economy. The biggest companies in the industry have explored all kinds of strategies to be more profitable and to build their brands. The companies highest expenses are incurred from advertising. Research shows that the likes of McDonald's, KFC, Subway, etc... spend millions of dollars on advertising annually. These fast food giants use a multitude of platforms to increase the popularity of their brands. They advertise on radio stations, television commercials, television shows, sports events, athletes, and music.The vast majority of the advertising is mainly aimed at kids, this is because the companies have realized that going after the kids is their best chance to increase the popularity of their brand. The companies mainly go after the youth because they know kids can't think for themselves and decide what's good and bad for them, therefore they use methods are made to make children like their products instantly.
The fast food industry started in the 1950s in California. Since day one they have relied on the youth for their profits and they have aimed their advertisements towards towards them. When fast foods first opened, their largest population of consumers were teenagers, who would drive in at the restaurants in cars. Initially they tried to make their business have a family like atmosphere, but now they market directly towards children. ''Children would become the new restaurant chain's target customers."(41) This explains the strategy McDonald's was going to use to boost their profits. This was a great idea Ray Kroc stated, " A child who loves our TV commercials, and brings her grandparents to a McDonald's gives us two more customers."(41) This further shows the genius of Ray Kroc, he manged to get adults to McDonald's without them been his primary focus. '' McDonald's mascot began to rival Mickey mouse in name recognition." (41) At this stage McDonald's plan to target children as their customers was a huge success, for their mascot to be as recognized as the most popular fictional character, their plan was working brilliantly. McDonald's has managed to keep children wanting to go to their restaurants frequently to this date. Six decades later my own cousin wants to have the happy meal every other day and every McDonald's i walk in there's a McDonald's land filled with kids whilst their parents sip on milkshakes and eat the best fries in the world.
Although i have deep admiration for Ray Kroc and the brilliance of his idea to market towards children, I despise the idea just as much. McDonald's has managed to get kids to consume their brand for the past half a century and more. They have used TV commercials and other forms of advertising to appeal to the minds of children and have portrayed themselves as flawless to the young minds of kids that can't decide between good and bad. One of McDonald's aim is to get children irritate, convince, nag, pressure, and guilt their parents into taking them to McDonald's. Children appeal to their parents emotions and this can be bad because some parents may just think it's about getting the kids whatever makes them happy. Although taking your child to McDonald's can get them off your back it can have more bad effects than the temporary happiness of the child. Children aren't able to see that going to McDonald's three times a week can be detrimental to their health. Obesity is one of the biggest problems in America and a lot of it is due to the large consumption of fast food. If a child goes to McDonald's more than once every week they are bound to gain weight, but McDonald's ignores the fact that children don't know that. McDonald's doesn't even make an attempt to show that they care about the health of children they could at least promote exercise but they chose to just advertise their happy meals and toys u get. Although the strategy is perfectly legal, McDonald's is able to get children to love their restaurants simply because they portray the perfect picture to children and get children to guilt their parents into taking them to their restaurants often.
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