[wordup] Fast Food: Uncool, reclaim, democratize, expose

[Adam Shand]

From: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/44/articles/food_fight/02.html

Uncool

Imagine ... the warm, nuclear glow around America's two most hallowed 
brands begins to waver, fade, then wink into obscurity. What – you don't 
believe that empires fall?

McDonald's is struggling. Its market is tumbling. Mad cow disease is 
spooking customers, competitors are gaining ground, and sane people 
everywhere are asking, "Can a 99 cent burger really be worth eating?" 
Likewise, Coke drinkers in droves are losing their thirst for bubbly, 
brown sugar water.

So we seize the moment. We start a stickering campaign against Coke 
machines in high schools. A single stenciled word – grease – appears on 
McDonald's tables, trays and windows worldwide. We use word of mouth, 
graffiti, posters and the Internet to spread our killer memes. We offer 
people a way out of the junk-food culture mindfuck. On primetime, we put 
a chill up McDonald's spine with a TV campaign that says, again and 
again, "53% of the calories in a Big Mac come from fat."

That's right: we kick them while they're down. And as their sales and 
logo-power plummet, we demonstrate once and for all that it isn't ad 
agencies and spin doctors that make or break corporate cool. It's us, 
the people. Let's make ‘em dance.

Reclaim

Here's a shocker: the first fast-food ads didn't move into public 
schools in North America until 1993. Since then, pushing product in 
schools has become a $750-million industry. Do we have the guts to once 
again make schools ad-free, junk-free places of learning?

A movement is already building. Schools in San Francisco and Seattle 
have shut out corporate ads; in Texas and California they're looking at 
a fast-food phase-out. Across the country schools are dumping their 
contracts with Coke and Pepsi.

Students were the first to protest – small acts of defiance like wearing 
a Pepsi t-shirt to "Coke in Education Day" or turning their chairs 
around during Channel One broadcasts. We can inspire them to do more ... 
to paste "my school is an ad-free zone" stickers on every schoolhouse 
ad, vending machine and administrator's office; to boycott World 
Children's Day visits from Ronald McDonald; to slap a big black dot on 
every junk-food logo they can find. And as the tide starts to turn, all 
of us – parents, teachers, students – move to reform the school food 
system, from the cafeteria to the curriculum.

We teach our kids to grow carrots, potatoes and lettuce in an organic, 
edible schoolyard. We teach them how to cook nutritious meals in the 
cafeteria. We teach them how to eat right and avoid a lifetime of 
obesity and mental anguish.

Democratize

Let's see now ... a steady stream of mainstream polls and surveys show 
that 95 percent of Americans, Canadians and Europeans want labels on 
genetically engineered foods. So what do you think should happen next?

Getting labels on GM foods shouldn't be a fight. It should be a given, a 
no-brainer, our democratic right. The genetic genie is out of the bottle 
and we have the right to know. With reliable labels, we can decide for 
ourselves which way to go. (Of course, labels terrify the food 
corporations – surveys predict that over 60 percent of consumers would 
be less likely to buy clearly labeled GM foods.)

Then, after we know if our food is GM or not, let's demand further 
information on the labels: how far the food has travelled before it 
reaches our hands; the environmental and social records of the companies 
involved; all the chemicals used in the "natural" flavorings (now not 
listed). And then let's pour all this information into a giant database 
and ask for in-store stations where we can scan product codes and call 
up profiles of every food we're about to buy.

Access to information is democracy's lifeblood. Access to food 
information is our body's lifeblood. Let's get it!

Expose

Our relationship with animals is cold and inhumane. We buy packaged, 
bloodless meat; the butcher stays behind closed doors; the factory farm 
is closed to visitors; the slaughterhouse has no windows. We know that 
the killing machine is constantly cranking, but we've lost the stomach 
to look at the blood in the gears.

So, let's bring the bite of reality back into our lives. Let's place 
photographs on packets of pork in the supermarket. Let's swing open the 
slaughterhouse doors. On CBS, NBC, CNN and ABC, let's run 30-second 
PSA's that show it like it is: chickens in their cages, cattle fattened 
on corn and antibiotics and then shot in the head. What are we afraid 
of? Let's move ever closer to the killing that's being done in our name, 
and finally, something surprising may happen: we may start feeling just 
a little more humane; a little closer to the sacred cycle of life and death.