A McDonalds Metaphor

AJ Teaters | 2 comments

A McDonalds Metaphor

So this is what’s wrong with us (human beings), we try and fix everything on the outside. This isn’t a new idea or concept; I’m definitely not the Socrates of the modern age, but something caught my eye in the newspaper this week. “McDonald's revamps stores to look more upscale” an article by USA Today, talks about how McDonalds is remodeling and restructuring the image they present with their “stores”. Can I just say that this is the perfect metaphor for Americans? What better parallel than using a fast food chain that started in America to show just how messed up Americans are! Thanks McDonalds I knew I could count on you.


Here’s the skinny (or should I not use that word in relation to McDonalds), I guess it sounds better than here’s the fatty (that sounds like I’m referenecing drugs or porn O_o). Anyways, this is what McDonalds has released to the press about their upcoming plans (which they coin as “highlights”):

• Redoing roofs. The bright red roofs that have topped McDonald's for several decades are getting the heave, replaced with flatter, more conventional roofs.
  


• Muting paint. The neon yellows and reds common to the interiors and exteriors are becoming history, replaced with much more subtle oranges, reds, yellows and even greens.
  


• Nixing fiberglass. The familiar fiberglass tables that have been a mainstay are being replaced mostly by wood.
  


• Updating chairs. Those industrial steel chairs are giving way to wooden chairs, colorful stools and, in some cases, vinyl-covered chairs that resemble leather. Some stores will have larger lounge chairs similar to the kind you might expect to find in a coffee shop.
  


• Doubling drive-throughs. To ease lines inside and outside stores, many locations are adding second drive-through windows to speed up service.
  


• Splashing color. McDonald's hasn't junked it's familiar red and yellow colors altogether, but it is making them far less obvious. Instead of filling the restaurants with them, it's splashing bright yellow and red here and there for effect.
  


• Junking the fluorescent look. Overhead fluorescent lights are being replaced with more contemporary lamps that make the lighting in stores look less like that of offices.
  


• Dividing dining areas. The sea of tables and chairs is history in the remodeled stores. The new dining rooms are divided into separate eating zones for larger groups, eat-and-run customers and folks who want to stay and lounge.
  


• Adding flat-screens TVs. Large, flat-screen TVs — some playing contemporary music — are showing up in many locations, though fewer than half of the remodeled stores will display them.
  


• Erecting semi-swooshes. Curving across the top of the newly flattened roof is what McDonald's calls the yellow "brow" — or half of a golden arch. It's got the familiar, bright-yellow design but encased in a Nike swoosh-like arc.
  

All the article talks about is making McDonalds not look like a McDonalds. They are taking inspiration from Starbucks and Apple. They want their store to feel like a place you can hang out in after you eat the most processed and disgusting food on the market. They say that they are continuing to revamp the menu as well, but recent additions such as their 'oatmeal' (read more here) leave their decision making skills very suspect.


My whole thought process on this story is, "Why is Mcdonalds spending 1 billion dollars on giving their stores a face-lift when they should be overhauling their menu to be healthier?!" "Why are they fixing the outside when they should be fixing what's going on inside first?" "All companies care about is money, not the product they are producing or how it affects the general public." Hopefully I'm not too far off in my thought process. What I am hoping is that you readers would have thought the same thing when you picked up USA Today and saw this article. If you didn't, that's O.K., I'm here to tell you how to think.


To use this as a metaphor for (humans, specifically Americans) is quite simple... We try and fix our outside image to hid what is truly wrong with what is going on inside of us. We hate the way we look, and think that we would be better off if we have a better body, face, bigger boobs, smaller buns, tighter thighs, a six pack (abs, not beer), a different nose, different eyes, fuller lips, less wrinkles... transplants, implants, suction, tucking, banding, lasering, lifting and injecting! How's this for a final thought on the metaphor: When we eat Mcdonalds we are knowingly putting "poison" in our bodies, and when we inject Botox into our bodies we are knowingly putting "poison" in our bodies!

Excerpt From Article:

Her mom, Melanie, who also is a nurse, says she, too, likes the redesign but hopes it signals a redesign of something else at McDonald's: the food.

"I'm hoping," she says, while watching her crew of preteens down a tray-load of burgers, fries and soft drinks, "this means McDonald's will also be bringing in more fresh fruits."

This woman wants the redesign to help prompt a redesign of the food McDonalds serves. She knows it's bad, but she still has, "her crew of preteens down a tray-load of burgers, fries and soft-drinks." Wouldn't the best redesign for her be, to NOT go to McDonalds any more? Oh, I'm sorry that's probably too inconvenient nowadays.

This excerpt the attitude of 'us' in a nutshell, "I want change, but I hope someone else does it for me, or I'm too lazy to change."

Go America!

*No McDonalds workers were harmed in the publishing of this post.

8 Weeks Later

AJ Teaters | 1 comment

8 Weeks Later

So, if you haven’t noticed I’ve been away for a little while. Not just from my blog (which seems to be the first thing to go when I get busy, which is better than eating or using the bathroom), but from all social networking. For those of you who did notice (all 2 of you) thank you, for those of you who had no idea I would appreciate a little more commitment.

Long story short, well more like long story abridged. I can never tell a short story. I am in Grad School right now for Professional Counseling, and for this past term (8 weeks) I was in a class entitled Intro to Addictions and Substance Abuse where my professor clearly explained that a dependency on anything: drugs, alcohol, sex, eating, etc. is basically a coping skill. When life gets hard, stressful, overwhelming, boring, overly stimulating, etc. one will turn to a coping skill to calm themselves down or escape for a period of time. What we discussed, at length, was the difference between a healthy dependency and a harmful one. Healthy = not harmful to you or others around you; Harmful = hurts you or other around you, both include physical and psychology damage.

So, unbeknownst to us (the entire class) had to give up one of their coping skills. I gave up social networking and creative writing. No writing, blogging, Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr. I basically gave up my creative outlet in the first hour of my class. My professor wanted us to know what it would feel like to have to live without one of our coping skills, so as we can be more empathetic to clients we may have that have a dependency issue. So for the past 8 weeks I have been “unplugged” from the social network.

I can honestly say it worked. I know that social networking is not drugs or alcohol (even though it is quickly growing to be an equivalent), but it did give me great insight into the mind, actions and excuses of a person with dependency. Throughout my class I heard excuses for relapse that could easily be substituted for drug and alcohol dependency or abuse. “I had a bad/stressful day,” or “My friends had some and I couldn’t say no,” or “I relapsed once, so I just didn’t care for the rest of the week.”

Over those 8 weeks the only thing that I missed was “knowing” what was going on in a world that only exists on Al Gore’s greatest invention… The Internet. I will admit that I had a couple days where they got pretty bad and I started jonesing for a hit of that sweet dark social mistress we call Facebook. I never went all psychedelic freak-out withdraw patient: sitting in a padded room chained to a bed, sweating, hallucinating, clawing at my skin, spitting at my PO and vomiting all over the place… I may have it would have been longer. To tell you the honest truth, outside of those few bad days I didn’t really miss it. I missed the creative outlet it warrants me and the communication I have with friends and family that I wouldn’t have otherwise, but I didn’t miss the gratuitous and unnecessary updates and comments. I didn’t miss the MIScommunication that inevitably happens when people either read too much or not enough into a comment you make and then you are defending yourself for the next week and a half. Those few bad days made me think about why I wanted to run to social networking so quickly. The only rational idea I could come up with (and remember I said rational not good) was that social networking, just like creative writing, is an escape into another world.

I am not implying that any of you should try this, but I did find it eye-opening. It took a lot more diligence that I thought, and I had no idea how much time I spent checking and updating my social network sites.

SIDE NOTE:
I think this post would’ve been better if I would have given social networking a bad ass street name, like “Chuck Cheese” or “Tap Dance” (shorten as you see fit or when the PO’s start to understand our slang), then we can call the people that are dependent on social networking “posters”. I’m open to suggestions, hit me up with any ideas you have to give social networking a little more street cred.