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| I don't mind minimum wage, I get paid in lovin'. |
I was born at the dawn of the 1970s, a time when restaurants served only a fraction of the food we consume. McDonalds, one of the early fast food franchises, blossomed while others stayed in place or withered. Millions and millions, then billions and billions, then trillions were served.
I have fond memories of my parents taking me there on rare occasion, maybe once every other month. It wasn't any more or less healthy than it is now, but it was more expensive -- smaller portions for proportionally more money than today. For me, it was tasty and exciting and different. I assume for them, it was easy and convenient and the kids wouldn't complain. As a pre-teen on my very first "long distance" bike ride to the mall, I rewarded myself with a McD's chocolate shake. As a teenager, I remember going to a McD's with my mom super early in the morning and getting my first McMuffin, right before we got on a bus to DC to protest for a woman's right to abortion.
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| I remember when a man was a man, a woman was a woman, and a McMuffin was an environmental nightmare. |
I have very personal associations with this restaurant whose food has basically been exactly the same all these years. Sure, the portions are bigger and the menu has expanded exponentially, but a McDonald's plain Quarter Pounder is exactly the same burger I ate as a 7 year old. Not only that, but where ever I go in the world, that Quarter Pounder is ALSO the same burger I ate as a 7 year old. Just from a logistics and consistency perspective, it's clear why McD's has a reputation in the business as a true goliath and legend.
Over the past 5 years or so, McD's business hasn't been doing too well. Increased competition from newer chains of fast and "fast-casual" joints are catering to the tastes of the younger generations who indulge in fast food. Better ingredients, ethically sourced, customized -- all sorts of burger chains are nibbling at their core business, and a burrito joint of all things is the McDonalds of 2015.
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| Oh, OK, integrity in food is trademarked. Everyone go home! |
I've written here before about the laughable attempts of McDonalds to try to demystify the quality of their food, and their status as a legacy brand that may be on the way out. Regardless, I've continued to occasionally eat at the place, usually at the insistence of the love of McMuffins from my eldest child. It's kid food, just as I remember it from the warm fuzzy days of my own childhood. That association is a bright Golden God, and one that marketers depend on.
I try not to overthink it -- feeding my children nutritionally suspicious food, OK, but it's not every day or even every week. I try not to think of the eating habits I'm passing on to my kids -- they know this is just special-time food, right? I try not to think of the rain forests in Brazil bulldozed to allow grazing for cheap beef to feed an international commodity supply chain -- that's so far away and out of view. I try not think of how McDonalds has dominated food deserts and highway rest stops since I was born in the early 1970s -- it's just a good business model that has grown because people like it, not because it leverages money and power to push out potentially better options, right?
It's shockingly easy to push a lot of fraught thought aside to the altar of the warm-fuzzy nolstalgic love of my deceased parents. My parents have been gone for nearly a decade, but as I leave behind childish thinking that doesn't serve me well as a grown-ass man, my relationship with them has only become more complicated.
So in that light, what if I went into a McDonalds, ordered some food for me and my kids, and then was asked by the counter person to ring up my dead mom in exchange for a free meal?
A new marketing blitz from McDonalds has kicked off with the Superbowl a few weeks ago. It involves a game where random customers are asked to pay with random "loving" acts in exchange for not have to pay with money.
My first reaction was: those poor saps who have to work at McDonalds and now have to deal with this sh#t.
This is a pretty blatant example of emotional labor: the requirement that a low-wage employee not just show up to work and adequately perform her duties, but that she put on a veneer of happiness and cheer for the customer to elicit an emotional response in him. For example, in 2013 Pret A Manger put up on its website (and then subsequently took down) expected “behaviours” its employees were supposed to exhibit, like creating a “sense of fun” and appearing “genuinely friendly.” The ones it wouldn’t allow, on the other hand, were bad moods and acting like they were “just here for the money.” Because ordering a sandwich is now supposed to be a delightful experience, and of course a low-wage clerk is at work for something other than a paycheck.My second reaction was a lot more personal: those marketing suits are trying to create warm, fuzzy memories and associations that had happened naturally between me and my parents. So for the unsuspecting, unaware customers who are brought into this interaction, the parents (while maybe the subject) are not the actors creating a relationship with you -- it is the corporate brand becoming the one feeding you and loving you. It is the underlying relationship with my own parents that has had me get comfortable with eating McDonalds, and importantly for the marketers, it is this underlying relationship that has brought me to recreating it with my own children.
This is what’s pernicious about emotional labor: it requires poorly paid people to slather a smile onto their face and cover up the real conditions under which they labor.
McDonalds is not people, it is a corporation. And as it suffers at the hand of a free market and generational shift, it becomes the most dangerous thing -- a corporation, a being without morals or ethics, that will do anything to preserve and expand it's profits. They're willing to fatten, exploit and consume me, and my children, but they will not manipulate the love between me and my parents, or as a parent, me and my children.
Though my kids don't know it yet, I am boycotting McDonalds until this marketing campaign is over. If my kids forget about McMuffins and happy meals by the time it is over, so be it. My parent's love is stronger than corporate love.
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| Actually, they're all the Hamburglar. |
WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2510
Life is still pretty ugh, but the ground work is being laid for a much happier Spring. Test bike ride on Tuesday through the slush to Coney Island was a slow slog, but laying roots is never as sexy as a flower in full blossom.
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MONDAY COUNT: 2620
MONDAY COUNT: 2620
SLEPT: 10:30pm - 6am, 7.5hrs
AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/
BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Cabot Greek with honey, vanilla and almonds, 500 cal
PM SNACK: 1:45pm, momma salad, cheezits 310 cal
DINNER: 6:30pm, mahi, mani, asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal
EVENING SNACK: 7pm, popcorn, +/-400 cal
EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, kind bar, 200 cal
EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 2 kids granola bars, almond butter & chocolate syrup, +/- 400 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 600 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 2495
BIKE CREDIT: 600 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 2495
SLEPT: 10pm - 6am, 8 hrs
AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/
BREAKFAST 2: 11am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal
PM SNACK: 1pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310cal
BIKE SNACK 1: 2:30pm, homemade granola bar, 215 cal
BIKE SNACK 2: 4pm, homemade granola bar, 260 cal
DINNER pt 1: 6pm, poppa salad with dressing, 200 cal
EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, veggie straws, 260 cal
DINNER pt 2: 7pm, Stouffer's French Bread pizzas, 840 cal
EVENING SNACKS: 7:30-8:30pm, kind bar, 2 kids granola bars, 2\400 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2305
SLEPT: 9am - 6am, 9 hrs
AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/
BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, Cabot Greek with honey, vanilla and almonds, 500 cal
PM SNACK: 3:15pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal
PM SNACK: 6:15pm, cashews, 255 cal
DINNER: 8:30pm, Chipotle Burrito, poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2520
SLEPT: 10:30pm - 6am, 7.5 hrs
AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/
BREAKFAST 2: 12pm, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal
PM SNACK: 6:15pm, slice of pizza, +/- 300 cal
DINNER: 7:15pm, faux-chicken parm, faux-roti canai, +/- 700 cal
EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, chocolate cake, +/- 600 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2610
SLEPT: 1am - 6:30am, 5.5 hrs
AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/
BREAKFAST 2: 12:30am, fruit smoothie, 500 cal
PM SNACK: 3:45pm, momma salad, cheezits, 320 cal
PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with dressing, apple pie, 560 cal
DINNER: 7:30pm, falafal salad thing from Maoz, +/- 500 cal
EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, vegan brownie, +/- 400 cal
EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, ice cream, 250 cal
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