...Running Head: Super Size Me Elizabeth Cady Grand Canyon University BIO-319 Super Size Me 3-20-11 As I watched Super Size Me I was appalled by all the facts that Morgan Spurlock showed about McDonalds. It has always been common sense, at least for me, that there is no possible way that fast food can be healthy for you. I personally know people that eat fast food almost everyday and they aren’t overweight. The fact that there are more McDonalds then any other fast food chain is not surprising. The part that I really enjoyed about the movie is when he talked about nutrition in schools. Something needs to be done. The first school he went to was in Naperville, IL at Madison Junior High School. The one thing he really emphasized on was that the kids there weren’t making the right food choices. Most of them got chips, fries, or pizza. Some of them just are fries. The cafeteria staff backed it up by saying that they probably brought a lunch from home, or they are sharing that food with other kids, when really they weren’t. In my opinion if they are trying to make the kids make the right choices then they need to have a better selection of healthier food for them. They don’t even cook food in schools anymore; it is all pre-packaged and frozen. They take it out of a box, warm it up, and serve it. In the movie they Morgan said that on average there are over 1,000 calories in one meal. That’s outrageous. Nobody should be eating that many calories in one meal. Morgan visited...
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...Semester Paper: Food, Inc. “The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years, than in the previous 10,000.” - Michael Pollan, Food inc. This single statement paints a vivid picture in ones mind. Not only is the way we grow our food changing, but we are also changing our bodies. According to the documentary “Food, Inc” , in the 1950’s, it would take farmers about 68 days to fully grow a chicken. Now? It takes about 47 days to fully grow a chicken, and it is twice as big due to the fact that these chickens are injected with hormones. While this literally brings more food to the table, it might not be worth it in the long run. There are many advantages as well as disadvantages that come with the industrialization of food. Using the chicken as an example. In the documentary, they explained that everyone loves white meat, therefor they make the chicken breast incredibly large to produce more meat from one animal. This is good in a sense that more food is being produced, but the truth is, it is changing, physiologically. According to an article written on mericola.com, girls as early of the age of seven are beginning go through puberty changes, something that was not happening until the ages of 12-13. Another disadvantage about the industrialization of food is the stuff we use to grow our food. Example? Most of our fruits and vegetables are grown using pesticides, which are to keep insects off of them. You may say “yeah keeping bugs off is good, i don't want a worm in my apple”...
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...advertising in our society. In the movie Spurlock talks about product marketing while using product placement to get brands to sponsor his movie. Of course, some of the brands (Guess, Harmel Foods, Ford, Nike, Red Bull,etc.) refuse his request to sponsor his endeavor and take part in the movie. Spurlock's reputation doesn't seem good enough for them, they are scared that being featured in this movie is going to damage their brand image. But brands, who want to be considered transparent or playful probably will be interested in sponsoring such a film. Some of the companies that agreed to sponsor the movie are Hyatt, POM Wonderful, Mini Cooper, JetBlue. They were taking risks, considering the fact that Spurlock was the man behind “Supersize Me” documentary, but overall I think it worked out well for them. Besides, Spurlock made sure that his brands were a good match for his movie. He analyzed his brand personality and then made sure the companies share that image as well. I think there were some good subjects and issues addressed in this movie. I like the idea of having a city without different media banners and posters like they did in Brazil. Another idea that I liked was the idea of writing “advertisement” at the bottom to show that you are being exposed to an ad. I feel like movie producers wouldn’t use so much advertisement...
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...my weight and my looks. Now thinking about it, how was I to know that fast food would alter the way I looked? But then again, I was just only a child; I had no control over what I ate. I’m guessing my parents were supposed to take care of my diet though? That is the idea that Spurlock, Popkin, and Schlosser try to reveal; Americans have no idea what they stuff in their mouths and don’t know how to control their binge for fast food. These three artists take different approaches in informing us the cause and effects of the fast food industry. Spurlock perfectly illustrates the negative effects fast food has on the body by conducting an experiment with the McDonald’s menu for thirty days straight in his comical documentary film, Supersize Me. In both The World is Fat and “Fast Food Nation”, Popkin and Schlosser talk about how fast food has quickly evolved during the years and how fast food has implemented itself into people’s lives. They all try to reveal the true nature of fast food corporations and how they have brainwashed people with their well expensed advertisements. They want to make people believe they are getting the best deal for their buck. Schlosser and Popkin talk about the evolution of the fast food industry; according to Schlosser, the fast food industry “Has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society” (Schlosser 387). Not only has fast food only have America by the throat, but the world. Spurlock says, “McDonald's operates...
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...The Film Super Size Me Ethical Paper Zhen J. Huang California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Introduction Take a look around when you go out, what do you see? Loads of fast food restaurants? Maybe McDonalds is the exact name. In the documentary film Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (2004) shows that fast food has become a fixture in the American culture, as well as other countries’ cultures. As Spurlock (2004) said in the film “what would happen if I ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days straight? Would I suddenly be on the fast track to becoming an obese American? Would it be unreasonably dangerous?” For this paper, I am going to discuss about the concerns of fast food, namely McDonalds by using three ethical theories: Hedonism, the Desire Theory, and Ethical Egoism. Hedonism: The Pleasure of the Super Size As Rabinowicz and Ronnow-Rasmussen (2005) explains, “an object is thought to be intrinsically valuable … depends on … final value if it is valuable ‘as an end’, ‘for its own sake’, rather than for the sake of something else” (p. 115). The kind of pleasure hedonists claim is always intrinsically valuable is health. If people know that they are healthy and are free of sickness or pain, they are living a good life, and a good life is a happy life. Basically, health contributes to happiness and the happier the person is, the better his/her life is going to be. According to Veenhoven (2003), “There is a longstanding discussion about the merits of this...
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...Supersize We: How portion sizes are correlated with our gluttony "Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us." - Peter De Vries As I wander through the labyrinth of my local grocery store, I cannot help but notice how things have changed. Metal carts overflowing with food and the once prevalent "market" section is now gleaming with the reflection of glass doors and the glow of brightly colored boxes, frozen meals ready for consumption. It was not always this way. I can still remember when I would travel to the store with my mother, help pick ripe fruit and vegetables for the family. This memory now clouded with the current sight of a child sitting in a cart grazing on fried potato crisps as his mother decides whether to buy the regular or the value sized bag. When did this change occur? When did we all of a sudden choose the premade package of "gourmet" frozen dinners rather than making a simple pasta dish for the family? With this abrupt change in our diets also came the inevitable change in portions provided by the grotesquely large food companies. And now with my home town of Chicago being ranked in the top ten most obese cities in America, it is time we discover where we went wrong. It is not new to us as Americans to see how our beloved country has gone from glorious to gluttonous. The amount of food that we consume has dramatically increased in the past thirty years and it is continuously on the rise. In reports by the U.S. Census Bureau, the...
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...Jocelyn Cortese Rob Hadaway M/W class Super Size Me Super Size Me Coming into class, I didn’t want to watch this film again. I had just watched it a few weeks prior in coach Stew’s class. All the troubles and problems that come along with eating fast food I already knew about but like the champ I am I watched it again. My intake of fast food is about 3 times per week usually consisting of in-n-out or waba grill. However, waba grill does not seem like fast food to me. I used to eat McDonalds on a weekly basis but for a while I stopped eating fast food altogether for soccer. When I went back to eating McDonald’s the food got me feeling sick right away, nauseous, and shaky. Then I remembered the guy in supersize me and he had felt the same way. Since then I don’t eat McDonalds. In class we’re being taught to examine major risk factors of cardiovascular disease, this is a disease that affects your arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients from your heart to the rest of your body. Healthy arteries are flexible and strong. Over time, however, too much pressure in your arteries can make the walls thick and stiff — sometimes restricting blood flow to your organs and tissues. This process is called hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). Atherosclerosis is the most common form of this disorder. Atherosclerosis is also the most common cause of cardiovascular disease, and it's often caused by an unhealthy diet, lack of...
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...Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me: a Comparison Do you like fast food? Do you know how many people have faced the obesity in American? Actually, fast food brings a new condition, which it has designed to taste good. And it’s also inexpensive and convenient. But it reflects American’s culture of obesity and the history behind. Eric Schlosser, in his book Fast Food Nation, takes a hard look at what’s behind the look-like chain eateries that dot the American landscape. A McDonald’s is not just a restaurant serving hamburgers to hungry patrons; it’s the end of along ripple of event that produces the food that millions eats every day. Meanwhile, with the first documentary, Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock used his own body to examine American culture of obesity. This film documents that lifestyle’s drastic effects on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry’s corporate influence. Comparing between Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me, I found the different emphasis in the contents, but they both show the fast food has influenced people deeply and we must find the right way to build the right opinion about the fast food and health. In the Fast Food Nation, we find the Eric Schlosser’s book promises to tell the dark side of all-American meal. It’s covers much of fast food culture and he also discusses how it developed, how taste of food can now be manipulate, federal regulations , health issues, and the spread of fast food abroad. In...
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...believe has some ethical concerns that need to be worked out. The argument against McDonald’s is that they make food that is unhealthy for the people who consume it. Many people believe that McDonald’s is a contributing factor to obesity in the United States and other countries around the world. According to Business Insider, it stated in 2012 that, “No company has so embodied the shift in America's diet as McDonald's, and no company has been more vilified by health advocates, yet until recently no fast-food company has done better.” There were many people who fought to expose the issue with McDonald’s and its affect on health of those who consume their food. One way that people tried to raise awareness was by filming a movie called “Super Size Me”. It showed the affects McDonald’s had on someone’s weight if they consumed it for an entire month. According to an article written by NBC in 2004, “McDonald’s is getting rid of the extra-large portions that had become one of its signatures. The burger giant said it has begun phasing out Supersize fries and drinks in its more than 13,000 U.S. restaurants and will stop selling them altogether by year’s end, except in promotions.” When McDonald’s was taken to court for the food they have been serving, the charges were overthrown. In efforts to appease the public, they added salad entrees to their menu in order to promote healthier eating. It was part of their Eat Smart, Be Active campaign. In my own opinion, I feel like McDonald’s still...
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...In Spurlock’s documentary film Super Size Me, experimentation and interviews confirm Spurlock’s claim because of the interdependent relationship of the two methods. The two social science methods separately do not give sufficient support to validate Spurlock’s claim. If only one of the methods were used, the information gathered would be unsupportive or too broad for the audience to understand. The interviews alone would have only portrayed assumptions and not proof to back up his thesis. If Spurlock solely relied on the experiment, individuals could question the probability of the results happening again or to other people. Interviews are conducted with average Americans and experts to medically explain and prove how fast food meals contribute to the U.S. obesity epidemic. The experiment is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the fast food industry’s influence to encourage poor nutrition, and to physically show the correlation between fast food and an unhealthy lifestyle. Both methods serve to validate one another because the responses from individuals supply the audience with data and information to better understand Spurlock’s experiment, while his personal experience provides data to support the information the interviewers give. Throughout the length of his experiment, experts are interviewed multiple times, which is crucial to reveal and explain the negative effects of fast food to the human body. As Spurlock prepares himself mentally, he sets appointments and interviews...
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...reader, the director and the viewer, the composer and the listener. It draws a path between them, the path that makes us visualize the pleasure we get, or the path that gives us ideas about what to expect. And even going deeper, there are sub-genres, super-genres, and indeed what is technique, style, mode, formula or thematic grouping to one may be treated as a genre by another (Bordwell 147). We make decisions based on genre, whether we realize it every time we make these decisions or not. I believe in some cases, we are made to believe in a certain way based on our past experiences. For example, listening to a classical music in the evening while it’s raining outside, or reading a novel on a Sunday morning; watching a black-and-white movie and assume it is likely to be a romantic movie, or it is likely to be an action movie if Jason Statham is the main character. We naturally connect the collected ideas and past experiences with the knowledge we accumulate throughout our lives, and then we put them together with the visual or verbal data presented; and that makes us come to a conclusion, a personal decision and personal ideas: Would this interest me? How serious could I take this? Does this look like a credible information to me? Not...
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...ABOUT THE COMPANY: The McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries across 35,000 outlets.Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948 they reorganized their business as a hamburger stand using production line principles. Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955. He subsequently purchased the chain from the McDonald brothers and oversaw its worldwide growth.A McDonald's restaurant is operated by either a franchisee, an affiliate, or the corporation itself. McDonald's Corporation revenues come from the rent, royalties, and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated restaurants. In 2012, McDonald's Corporation had annual revenues of $27.5 billion, and profits of $5.5 billion.McDonald's primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken, french fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. In response to changing consumer tastes, the company has expanded its menu to include salads, fish, wraps, smoothies, fruit, and seasoned fries. STRATEGIES McDonald’s utilized an intense, rapid expansion into foreign countries through three primary methods, franchising, company owned restaurants, and joint ventures. With the majority of international restaurants stemming from franchising agreements, McDonald’s management relied on this...
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...Morgan Spurlock and the McDonald’s Effect The basic premise of the movie, “Super Size Me,” by Morgan Spurlock, was to determine the effects of eating McDonald’s food for a period of thirty days to determine other adult’s knowledge of the regular consumption of fast-food and the psychological effects (stress and wellness) it has on an individual’s body. Morgan’s Next Thirty Days Before his study began, Morgan enlisted the aid of three medical physicians on his thirty-day journey of eating McDonald’s: a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, and a general practitioner. The following are his overall health readings: Morgan Spurlock’s Overall Health Readings at Beginning of Study Cardiologist Gastroenterologist General Practitioner Blood Pressure 140/95 120/80 103/105...
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...“Everything of too much kills” (A reaction paper for the movie “Supersize Me”) The documentary film produced, directed and starred by Morgan Spurlock titled “Supersize Me” is made out of Spurlock’s curiosity about how the obesity cases in the U.S society spreads easily and continue to increase in rates. This situation of the U.S society is later declared “epidemic” by a Surgeon General, and fast food is the main reason why Americans easily get fat. And so, this muckraking documentary film aims to elaborate the cause of eating regularly at fast food chains and lets people know the effects of this not only in our body but also in our mind. Spurlock’s film will then follow a 30-day period wherein he will have a solely McDonald’s food diet – three meals per day and must agree with the supersize if asked – during the period and will limit his walk only with 3,000 steps in order to effectively document this kind of lifestyle’s severe and serious effect on his physical well-being. This will also explore the impact of fast food industry and how it encourages people to have a poor nutrition in exchange of having profits. But before this documentation is executed, he first began the shooting by consulting and submitting himself to three doctors – a general practitioner, a gastroenterologist and a cardiologist – who tested him and announced that Morgan has an outstanding general health. These three will also monitor his body during the experimentation period. During the shooting...
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...In 2004 an impactful documentary, Super Size Me revolutionized the way American’s view on fast food. In the documentary, Morgan Spurlock uses himself as a credible source in convincing the viewers to believe The United States is the most obese country in the world due to bad diets and lack of exercise. From the onset, the film weighs on the audience’s pathos appeals. The opening sequence of the film is a group of kids singing multiple food chains’ theme songs. Many of the children singing appear to be overweight. The intended emotional response of the audience is to think it’s cute and funny. This is especially effective in Spurlock’s argument. It proves that fast food chains have begun marketing towards children. This shoots down his counterargument that the fast food companies are not at fault for weight gain. The audience inquires that the counterargument is wrong because they visually see these children being marketed towards and seeing the addictive qualities of the fast foods they are consuming. Spurlock suggests to the audience that the children don’t know any better so it is the fast food companies fault for the children’s weight....
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