Response #1: "You're Trusted Friends"

The popular chain restaurant McDonalds has changed its eating environment over the years. From its earlier years, the mascot who represented McDonalds known as the clown Ronald Mc Donald was more popular than it is today. His face and the popular red and yellow colors that represented the empire covered almost everything that had to do with the restaurant. The exterior for McDonalds for the most part has remained the same, but the interior has been making big changes such as changing the colors, chairs and taking away the play space for kids. One of the few things that have stayed the same was the toys that came in a child’s happy meal.
Part of the McDonalds franchise is the advertisement techniques they have is including toys in a child’s meal. As time changes, so do their toys. The toys they give vary depending on what is popular to kids at the moment such as television shows, characters and games. Keeping a child entertained is one of the key things in their business. As I read a chapter from Fast Food Nation called “You’re Trusted Friends” It told me about how much work they put into their advertisements and toy ideas to make sure they were appealing children. Keeping a child interested in their business is a big deal. Children will see a commercial or billboard that intrigues them and tell their parents about it and will want to go there.
As I ordered food, noticed a big change in the menu. On each meal picture, there were the calories for each meal. I also recognized they sold small wraps which were called “snack wraps” and also saw salads on the menu. I watched the workers dressed in black and red with two golden arches on their shirts that were all in full view of their customers work fast and put food in trays and fryers. After I ordered, I sat at one of their table, ate my food and observed the people around me. In this particular McDonalds, I noticed how different it looked compared to how I remember it as a child. It was full of more green, blues, brown and grays. Each table included either four or 2 metal chairs that sat across from each other. There were pictures of families on the wall rather than the characters such as the Hamburglar, Grimace and Ronald. It felt cleaner than it used to be when I walked in there, more welcoming. The McDonald’s sign that is known as a big golden “M” was branded on my fries and fountain drink. I also noticed there wasn’t one thing that had Ronald McDonalds face on it.
Since it was earlier in the afternoon, there weren’t many people in the restaurant. The people who were there consisted of a few teens out of school, a couple senior citizens sipping on coffee and reading the paper and a nanny and child. I observed the child who looked to be about 5 and tried to take note of the way he reacted to being in McDonalds. He seems interested in a toy and bag his happy meal came in which seemed to be the only thing that had Ronald’s face on it. He played the mini games on his bag while he ate his food, and then left with his nanny.
McDonalds doesn’t exactly look the same as it used to but something about keeps children and adults coming back for more. Instead of their commercial with the Ronald McDonalds characters, they have regular people like you and me singing about how good the food is and why we should go in. Or maybe it’s the healthier choices of foods such as salads, snack wraps and counting the calories on their menus that may interest more people to go into their restaurants. Either way new and old customers keep coming back.