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Jan. 27th, 2005 10:23 amSo I go to McDonalds for lunch yesterday, and they ask me if I want to "go large". I suppose since the "Supersize Me" movie, they kinda want to use a different term, but I think they picked the wrong one. If I wanted to "go large", I'd eat double quarter pounders there every day and gain an extra couple hundred pounds.
Then there's the whole lawsuit thing. My libertarian instincts tell me that everyone is responsible for their own fate, and only a moron would eat double quarter pounders every day and be surprised at weight gain. One only has to look at their recent record of CEOs -- Cantalupo died of a heart attack at 60 last April, then Bell died a couple weeks ago at 44 of colon cancer (after resigning a couple months ago to fight it). Two CEOs died young in less than a year. Other health aspects are involved, surely, but Bell boasted that he ate a McDonalds product every day.
Personal choice, personal choice. However. It bugs me that McDonalds still tries to upsell. Why ask if I want to "go large"? Are they being kind, asking every single drive-through customer in the off chance that they really did intend to go large but merely forgot to mention it? Or do they feel that upselling really will increase sales, and thus (almost beside the point) shove a few hundred more calories under my belt? Seems to me, if they believe that upselling works, and they accept the profits of upselling, they should accept some of the responsibility of the indirect calories.
I'm not sure how that corporate responsibility balances with personal responsibility, though. After all, my Polish grandmother, for most of my life, has said to me: "Eat! Eat! You're too skinny!" and has piled extra calories on my plate. Though, I assume (...perhaps...) that if I were obese, she would tell me to diet, and McDonalds probably would continue to try to upsell me.
Then there's the whole lawsuit thing. My libertarian instincts tell me that everyone is responsible for their own fate, and only a moron would eat double quarter pounders every day and be surprised at weight gain. One only has to look at their recent record of CEOs -- Cantalupo died of a heart attack at 60 last April, then Bell died a couple weeks ago at 44 of colon cancer (after resigning a couple months ago to fight it). Two CEOs died young in less than a year. Other health aspects are involved, surely, but Bell boasted that he ate a McDonalds product every day.
Personal choice, personal choice. However. It bugs me that McDonalds still tries to upsell. Why ask if I want to "go large"? Are they being kind, asking every single drive-through customer in the off chance that they really did intend to go large but merely forgot to mention it? Or do they feel that upselling really will increase sales, and thus (almost beside the point) shove a few hundred more calories under my belt? Seems to me, if they believe that upselling works, and they accept the profits of upselling, they should accept some of the responsibility of the indirect calories.
I'm not sure how that corporate responsibility balances with personal responsibility, though. After all, my Polish grandmother, for most of my life, has said to me: "Eat! Eat! You're too skinny!" and has piled extra calories on my plate. Though, I assume (...perhaps...) that if I were obese, she would tell me to diet, and McDonalds probably would continue to try to upsell me.
