McDonald's Carnivals of Protest

Source F.E.E.D. Sticker Campaign

Carnival resists the Spectacle of global capitalism. Spectacle and Carnival are oppositional theatrics: the theatrics of corporate power resisted by the street theatre of the carnivalesque. To explore this topic, we can look at the theatrics of McDonald's, and what Ritzer (200) calls McDonaldization, and Schlosser  (2000) calls Fast Food Nation. 

We are coming up on the 18th Annual worldwide Boycott McDonald's Day (around October 16) by a growing loosely-knit coalition of social movements.  Why? "The $30 billion multinational places profits over people and the environment, by their destruction of natural resources and exploitation of people, through use of highly aggressive practices which include cattle ranching on rainforest land, sweatshop labor, low wages and a ban on trade unions" (F.E.E.D.). 

  1. Poor worker conditions and low wages of McDonald's fast food workers 1, 2, 3
  2. Exploitation of foreign teenagers in sweatshops to make promotional toys for McDonald's Happy Meals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
  3. Damage to the environment, including the wasteful and harmful effects of the mountains of instantly disposable packaging, "cutting down trees" and "destroying our rainforests." The McLibel factsheet says "The fact sheet stated: "Every year an area of rainforest the size of Britain is cut down or defoliated, and burnt"; "Methane (cow farts) emitted by cattle reared for the beef industry is a major cause of the global warming crisis"; bovine methane emissions; "...when a cow farts it's like leaving your car on for 15 minutes. " 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 
  4. McDonald's fries are processed with beef additives. Since McD switched to 100% vegetable oil, the McDonalds corporation developed a meat flavoring to add to the fries to preserve their cow-like taste?  1, 2, 3 
  5. McDonald's, the planet's biggest buyer of beef, Animal Rights activist protest millions of animals treated inhumanely in slaughterhouses. Animals are deprived light, fed drugs to speed up growth, (which end up in your food), are not given enough room to move, and finally they are brutally slain and made into your next meal. McD has responded to PETA's request to do better, and made minor changes in its slaughterhouse contractors 1, 2
  6. Vegetarians against McDonald's 1, 
  7. Cowboys against eating beef rendering - Nearly 30% of 180 rendering plants, the FDA said, had no
    system for preventing feed mix-ups, and 16% didn't comply with labeling requirements. 1, 2, 
  8. The McLibel trial and others raising concern among consumers over Mad Cows' Disease 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
  9. Serving unhealthy food - McDonald's food is high in salt, fat, and sugar. It also contains chemical additives which may cause ill health and hyperactivity in children.
  10. McAds - Pretending to be pro-Rainforest 1 ; Pretending that McRecycling makes a difference ; McDonald's saying they use recycled paper: only a tiny per cent of it is. The truth is it takes 800 square miles of forest just to keep them supplied with paper for one year. 2, 

 

 

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