Fast Food Nation Chapter 2 Summary

707 Words3 Pages
Lyric Lederer Professor Moore English 1101-NET04 September 18, 2012 Unit 3-2 Summary Eric Schlosser promises to show us ‘The Dark Side of the All-American Meal; in his expose, Fast Food Nation, and he delivers. He hits us early in” Chapter 2, “Your Trusted Friends,” by exposing how the fast food industry, together with many corporations, grew to be such an over powering and influencing presence on the nation. The industry grew by using the methods of big business, starting with the assembly line type production methods, then by strategic and deceptive marketing. Schlosser wanted to show that the American public had a need for low cost food that could be delivered to the customer quickly and with no or very little preparation time. Fast food industries corporate greed took advantage of Americas need for cheap and readily available food. The fast food industry uses shrewd marketing tactics and governmental influences to promote products to the American public, having little or no concern for the people that are put at a disadvantage for the sake of the company making money. Schlosser states that in 1972 Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, gave the Nixon campaign a $250,000.00 donation. That year Congress and the White House were going to pass new legislation known as the “McDonald’s Bill”. The bill allowed employers to pay young teenagers twenty percent less than minimum wage (37). What Schlosser lacks in impartiality, he makes up for in his persuasive abilities as he shows us over and over again how the nation is being duped by corporations and even the United States Government. Large corporations strike deals and work together to manipulate both adults and children into thinking that they need food products that do not nourish them. Schlosser shows that marketing to children was once not acceptable in the United States and has now become something

More about Fast Food Nation Chapter 2 Summary

Open Document