It is so irritating that in almost all American fast food promotional ads if there is a person, it is average or skinny. Is like if they try to fool people by showing that skinny people is into the fast foods lifestyle. I honestly see it as an insult for not showing the reality of the situation.
Updates
+1 y
Thankyou everybody who commented. My goal was to be polemic as possible and make GAGERs eager to participate. Bec. the more we talk about a topic no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel, the better informed we become. Obesity is a major problem that affects everyone directly or indirectly but we are not doing enough as citizens to help solve the problem. I perhaps didn't word Q efficiently, but I wished people could have been more analytical and see advantages of my proposal.@TheGreyVisionary
Should there be a requirement to include obese people in the fast food commercials?
As humans we are attracted to things we cannot be. Plus size people are awesome and there is always the say "Don't judge the book by it's cover" In a way I think it is a marketing scheme to make it seem less harmfull. If there were obese and plus size people within fast food commercial it would show directly that the food they sell isn't completely healthy. But however when advertised with fit people automatically mentally it makes it seem less harmfull. Also we live in a sensitive world these days. If fast food commercials did have obese people the company would be dealing with a lot of hate comments on social medias also lots of misunderstandings.
Fast food doesn’t make people fat. The circumstances around why people choose fast food makes them fat
Eg lack of time transportation price food deserts etc...
That I said I’m all for a wider range of body shapes and actors being included in all advertising
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Asker
+1 y
Lol. Fast food doesn't make people fat.
Please, get serious. You are talking like the coca cola spokesperson telling congress cola is good for someone because it helps them reach their daily water intake. (Search it up)
If you have a cheeseburger you’ll be fine. If you have 12 cheeseburgers then there’s probably a problem. Just like if you eat 12 salads you’ll probably have a problem
yes she's completely right how do people not realize this LOL... no wonder you see the same guys at the gym and they still look the same after 4 years LOL
she said it perfectly... if you over eat on salads you'll get fat...
If you overeat you'll get fat. That's it. I eat junk and fast food more than anything else and I am still the furthest thing from fat. If anything I could use more weight but I just don't overeat.
Belle: Alright so, obesity is the cause of several factors. I will admit the circumstances around why people choose fast food make them obese. BUT, you can't deny fast food make you obese and unhealthy. Denying that is unlogical when all the data shows that just eating a single burger can have a bad impact in your body for a week. And thank you for understanding that those ads need to show the truth.
Triple Ace: same explanation as belle.
Ciitru: please be careful! Because of our metabolism and genetics some people tend to eat too much and not get fat, but your body runs as well as the fuel you put in. If you feed your body garbish, your body will look ok right now because you are young but your insides will look like garbish, until you clean it up. Same thing happened to my brother, he is like 6ft and skinny but he is so much junk food that he often gets dezze and deals with heavy breading. I am not trying to prove. Point here, I am just asking you to reconsider your lifestyle.
That doesn't attract a lot of customers. If I have a business, I want to maximize the amount of customers I have. If I put on an ad that sends the message "out of shape people like this", I'll have almost no customers. Besides that, the way a person's shape is shouldn't really matter in these commercials. Average and skinny people eat fast food all the time. In fact, the 'average body' look is the average customer. I work as a fast food manager and I can say honestly that we get a large range of customers, and only a handful are in noticeable bad shape.
I'm thinking more like a warning from the Surgeon General in the corner of the screen. "Caution, may cause obesity, type II diabetes, bowel cancer, morbid obesity, gastrointestinal reflux disease, etc. Big business is poisoning you for profit, and not just the fast food companies but nearly ALL food producers. In addition to the added salt, sugar and fat, there are more than 8000 food additives used in the food industry---most of them unnecessary to your well-being. This does not include the dozens of pesticides. ~JSmith
This is a touchy topic for the morbidly overweight because for some, it's not overeating/binge eating that made them this way. Stress is also a contributing factor. Depression is a contributing factor. Thyroid/glandular issues can play a hand as well in obesity.
In my opinion, I don't think we should include the obese in fast food commercials. It produces a blanket stereotype that this is what obese/fat people often do. I don't think making it a requirement is a good idea.
My thoughts on it are influenced by my disdain for the "body positivity" movement. You know, that movement of "fat acceptance" that is supposed to make women feel good about themselves and make them feel accepted and, thus, empowered about their size with little regard for the fact that obesity opens up the door for many more health-related complications such as diabetes, increased risk of heart attack, possible amputation of a limb or two, sedentary lifestyle choices, more binge eating, etc.
Of course, that's an entirely different topic. I just wanted you to understand why I do not approve of the requirement that obese people should be included in fast food commercials.
When are people ever going to grow up, pretend they are adults, and take responsibility for their own actions? Fast food companies have every right to exsist, and advertise any way they want as long as they don't lie. Do they claim that only skinny people eat there? No, just saying they can too. If as an adult someone can't understand that fatty foods, lead to a fatty ass, they deserve it, as well as the heart attack that's following close behind. Thin the herd I say. While we are at it, let's get God to make a PSA about not staring into the sun. He made it, it's his fault if I damage my eyes, right? Grow up america, and just dont buy the crap then.
1. Do you really need to see Huge Heifer or Rolza Phat on a commercial to know that Big Macs are not health food? Anyone who does not already realize that is probably not amenable to further education.
2. I cringe any time I hear the argument made for additional government regulations. Government regulation of our lives is not what the founding fathers envisioned. If we don't like what MacDonald's is doing, we can let them know by not patronizing their business.
3. The fact that people do not boycott MacDonald's proves that this is what the masses want. Are you suggesting that we should force people to engage in "healthy" behaviors, regardless of their individual choices and preferences? I think people should have the right to make bad choices because, if you are granted the freedom only to make choices that others deem appropriate, you have not been granted any freedom at all.
You can be skinny and still eat fast food, everything in moderation.. As for would it be effective? Doubt it. I think in the UK cig boxes have pics of lungs after a person died from lung cancer. Really gross but I am not sure they really reduced the amount of people smoking. Also, there is no incentive for a company to advertise the adverse effects of their product. So I am basically saying I would rather mcdonalds use only skinny beautiful people instead of the FDA or some other government entity forcing Mcdonalds to use their real customers.
Yep they do, they have pictures of lying lungs, dead bodies, babies breathing in smoke etc.
I think the same goes for McDonald’s as it does for smoking. If someone wants to do it they are going to do it regardless of what the packaging or advertisement looks like
They don't fool people. They try their best to sell their product. You see the reality of the situation when you go there. Just like you see it when you grab your burger and feel how flappy it is. Companies can lie to their customers however they like. It's up to you if you want to go there. No, seriously: if you had any ki d of shop, would you take photos and measurements of your customers to accurately portray them in your ads? Or wouldn't you hire the kind of people that make people buy your stuff? Little tip: many people tried your business idea. No one knows those companies names though
Kinda like the cigarette packs now, and all the scary pictures they have on them. I guess so, but its an advertisement and such a huge company isn't gonna unpromote itself. Maybe they should just at least use average szed people, a mixture of some chubby people , just not all stick thin. And like actually incorporate healthier options or sth
Commercials are Made to influence people into buying a certain product. Having skinny people advertise fast food restaurants causes more people to shop their. If they replaced them with fat peoples, less people will purchase food from them thinking that it will cause them to be fat/gain weight
It's not exactly good marketing. From a marketing perspective, anyone who did that in a fast food commercial should be fired. Fast food places have been trying to fight against the unhealthy image for a long time. They sure as heck aren't going to perpetuate that image.
fast food doesn't get you fat dude lol... over eating does you can over eat broccoli and still get fat...
I eat fast food all kinds... but I don't over eat during the day... so if one combo is 1200 calories, well too bad... I only have 500 more for the day for example
I don't know about a "requirement" for any demographic, unless that's the main audience you're trying to sell to.
And I look thin. I go to fast food joints a lot - though to be fair, I usually get a water, (once in a while a pop) and that's it. Maybe twice a month I'll get something to eat.
Well didn't McDonalds sponsor the Olympics at some stage? If that can happen, I don't see much hope for any honest adverts. Id love to see an iPhone advert where some guy who is working on the phones jumps through the window to try and kill himself, lands on the nets they have and gets dragged back to his post
Some people who are overweight may take offence to seeing that, therefore starting protests and arguments which shouldn't be in place from the beginning. Every individual person should be included and have the same opprotunuty as the next but it would cause lots of controversy
If they are not legally required to do so, of course they won't. But I can imagine it not being required to put "unhealthy and can cause obesity" on it because that would be required on almost 50% of the food out there. Besides, it's only unhealthy in large proportions, which only makes the case harder.
It sounds like fat shaming though. On the other hand, they're advertizing the product, not forcing anyone to subscribe and eat fast food 24/7 or drink gallons of soda and ice cream everyday. Besides, there are a LOT of other unhealthy foods right on your regular supermarket's shelves, some even openly advertized as healthy.
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Opinion Owner
+1 y
@update Most people are aware of the repercussions of only eating fast food or sweets. Conversely, what would be the message of putting obese people on the ads? Mcdonald's is the obese people's club? Not necessarily. Besides, many obese people may not even like Mcdonald's and not want such association.
I would be more concerned if you said Mcdonald's has this policy of not hiring obese people to protect their own image or something.
Additionally, what is your opinion on other fast food chains? On the large amounts of salt, sugar and other artificial ingredients the government allows to be added to regular food everyone ends up buying and consuming unsuspectingly?
To be honest they should have them in commercials. It wouldn't have to be in every commercial but since they're such an important part of the custom base they deserve to be represented.
To be fair food commercials always lie its not just McDonald's its pretty much all of them.
its a product as much it's killing people regretably all court decisions on the matter say that people have the right to choose better and have greater responsibility about their health, and that means you can't expect companies to not want to advertise themselves well, and stay marketable
This is totally unrelated but, in Canada, cigarette manufacturers were asked to put warning labels on the packaging of all cigarettes, which shows a few of the worst effects of smoking. Do you know what it did, next to nothing. People still smoke, some quite excessively. My point is that I'm not sure your idea would work. People will do whatever they wanna do regardless of knowing the bad effects or not.
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Anonymous
(36-45)
+1 y
Well it would make complete sense in relation to health, but as always they’re just trying to promote their product so they don’t want to portray the truth of negative effects. Bias is always an issue people need to address with most things and shouldn’t just be taken at face value.
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Anonymous
(25-29)
+1 y
That would be discriminatory. Only fat people eat McDonald’s? Not only that, but it wouldn’t be a great selling point. They have nutritional information and they also have salads and what not. They have apples and milk for kids. They do have healthy options.
It's pretty obvious why they aren't in there, man: People don't want to be fat. No fat people are in advertising because even fat people don't *want* to be fat; they've simply *accepted* that they're fat. But no one, and I mean NO one, WANTS to be fat. Advertising is an attempt to show us all things that we are supposed to *want,* in this case, crappy food, but if the people seen eating the food in the ads are fat, unattractive people, lots of people will stop buying it. Pretty simple.
Even though it might make people actually think twice, I can imagine that the protests and subsequent boycott of the business is enough for them to not do that. Simply put, what attracts more people? Is it subtly shouting out that they are fat or is it just telling them how good the food is?
I mean eating fast food every once in a while won't make you fat. They openly share the amount of calories and fat and stuff. People know its unhealthy
No one is fooled except idiots. People eat there because it's cheap and they like it. Should your face be on every anti-bullying commercial? You know, the mean kid that bullies people because of their appearance?
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Anonymous
(36-45)
+1 y
I eat fast food all the time, and I'm not fat. Good blood pressure, lipids, hormones, blood sugar. Everything's perfectly fine. My granddad was fat and he only ate what my grandma cooked.
You want to make a change? Put fat people in gym commercials to get rid of the stigma and self-consciousness so they won't be so embarrassed. Cheer them on. Take your fat friends to the gym and teach em some lifts.
It's marketing, plain and simple. You present the product in the best light you can.
And, by the way, fast food does not - in and of itself - make someone fat. Eating too much of it, and not exercising, does. Even that should be qualified- you can eat pretty healthy at many fast food places (including Mickey D's), it's just that most people choose not to.
Why? McDonald's didn't make anyone fat. We don't need nannies. You don't think skinny people eat at McDonald's? However much I hate do-gooders, I do believe the antibiotics in our food supply probably helps make people fat, but in the end it's free will you don't want to Outlaw that do you?
Because they're advertising their businesses. They're trying to attract people not make people not want to eat there. Besides, it's the individuals fault for being overweight. A person is supposed to consume a certain amount of calories daily.
no. this would be a major overstep. there is no requires to show people of certain demographics in ads. if people can't ascertain that foods at mcdonalds may be unhealthy and lead to weight gain on their own at this point... that's their own issue
No, as long as their commercials aren't saying that you can't get fat from their food or that no fat people eat their food, they're not exactly lying and therefore shouldn't be required to change their adds.
McDonald's will only make you fat if it becomes your main source of food. The problem isn't McDonald's, rather carbohydrates in general that people continuously consume. If you stay away from McDonald's but continue to have carbohydrates, you'll get fat all the same. Just eat it occasionally and no harm will be done. I've been on the ketogenic diet for almost two years now and it's performed miracles.
I know someone who eats McDonald’s constantly and she weights about 8 stone wet through. Some people are skinny and eat crap. Some people are fat and eat crap. I don’t see the point in tailoring ads to just fat people.
No, there shouldn’t be unless the same is required of all restaurant, beer, soda, and grocery commercials. Anything is fine in moderation. Let’s not blame the sellers for overindulgence.
Yes, while we're at it, models who promote make-up like mascara that extends eyelashes should be required to wear it instead of wearing fake eyelashes to fool people into buying it.
I think it would be interesting and I am for it. That being said, it won't help the people who know it's bad but can't afford better or don't know how to do better.
Well there aren't that many obese actors. Interestingly, I don't see that many obese people at fast food joints. Most are unhealthy skinny or maybe a tad above average.
Also a legal requirement? No way, that's ridiculous.
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Anonymous
(30-35)
+1 y
No. If you owned a franchise, would you want to be associated with obesity and unhealthy lifestyles? The whole point is marketing. Should it be required for casinos and lottery commercials to show people with depression and gambling problems? It is your choice to eat and spend money on things, the companies just cater to the consumers' needs and should not suffer for that.
This goes deeper than that. It's not just the fast food that's doing that... what about the big pharmaceutical corporations that make medicine that causes more harm than it helps?
Skinny people are into fast food. And basic marketing shows people don't want to look at unattractive people so why would they have commercials featuring them?
Fast food alone doesn't make you fat dumbo, its the excess amount that makes you fat. Its not like they are showing commercials of someone eating 20 burgers at once. If you need a commercial to tell you how to eat then you have bigger problems...
I put myself on a diet where I watched my calorie intake. I ate McDonalds five days a week. I lost a lot of weight. These are just bullet points but it is true. My question to you is, what the hell are you talking about?
@anniisa Between 1800-2100 calories a day and I got the same thing when i went to mcdonalds to eat before work, 2 cheeseburgers small fries and a coke.
Fast food in of itself doesn't make people overweight or unhealthy. You just need to practice moderation. As for setting advertisement requirements, I tend to vote on the side of minimal government interference.
YEAH! That would be great! Like they have those people with holes in their necks for the cigarette commercials, they should have fatasses for fast food commercials.
Adults know what they are doing to themselves when they eat fast food. Everybody knows that, nobody gives a shit about any commercials. That is the dumbest idea i have ever heard.
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