Hidden Hardships:

The Truth Behind the Flashing Lights and Fries

Cultures, though specific to the people within them, would not exist without influences

from other societies. Globalization, the spread of ideals from one culture to another, has a major

effect on how a civilization functions. Eric Schlosser’s essay, “Global Realization,” describes

globalization in different situations. One example was McDonald’s, an American business that

expanded throughout the world (Schlosser, 497). While McDonald’s extended to other

countries, a small city took in the world. This city, Las Vegas, has grown into a large well-

known city. It integrated popular places in the world by constructing imitations of famous

structures from those places (Schlosser, 502). McDonald’s and Las Vegas both draw in large

groups of people with empty promises, and people fail to see the negative effects on their lives.

This paper will argue that society views the positive outcomes of an industry or a place while the

hardships hide behind false hope. The ease of fast food restaurants, despite their unhealthy food,

makes consumers feel like they are winning within a global society. Similarly, the colored lights

and the chance to win money attract people to the city of Las Vegas and hide the possibility of

loss (Schlosser, 503). However, individuals can change the way a society as a whole views an

industry. One option is to only go to these places on occasion to avoid spending excess money.

Another way to change this view is to protest and take action to show the effects of these places.

A final idea is for consumers to not give into the advertising and promises at all.

The success of the fast food industry brings different effects to the areas involved. A fast

food restaurant brings food to the residents of an area for a low price. Schlosser provides a

reason for fast food prices when he writes:

Commodity prices have fallen so low that the profits, in order to attract

customers. The size of a burger has become one of its main selling points.

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 Wendy’s offers the Triple Decker; Burger King, the Great American; and

Hardee’s sells a hamburger called the Monster (507).

This gives people the opportunity to eat out without having to spend an enormous amount of

money and shows why customers go to their businesses. If companies lower prices they can

convince people to purchase more food as opposed to buying a single sandwich for the reduced

price. Schlosser also shows how even though the prices are good, the quantity and quality of the

food is unhealthy when he writes,

During the late 1950s the typical soft drink order at a fast food restaurant

contained about eight ounces of soda; today a “Child” order of Coke at

McDonald’s is twelve ounces. A “Large” Coke is thirty-two ounces—and about

310 calories…Super Size Fries have 540 calories and 25 grams of fat. At Carl’s

Jr. restaurants, an order of CrissCut Fries and a Double Western Bacon

Cheeseburger boasts 73 grams of fat—more fat than ten of the chain’s milk

shakes (507).

By saying this, Schlosser is showing how people are actually paying for fat, calories, and weight.

By these statistics, a person can consume more than half of the calories from a two-thousand

calorie diet in one meal at McDonald’s. Also, increasing the amount of soda that children drink

at one meal can have a huge impact on a child’s weight if the child were to go there often.

The possibility of a child going to a fast food restaurant has increased because of the

gimmicks that these places employ. An example of this can be seen when Schlosser writes, “The

kiddie factor—children urging their parents to shop at Wal-Mart because they have a

McDonald’s inside the store—could generate an upsurge in customers” (500). The “kiddie

factor” is able to exist because children are very impressionable when they are young. However,

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there must be another factor involved in order to influence these children. This factor is

advertising. An example can be seen when Schlosser writes,

That day McDonald’s was the nicest, cleanest, brightest place in all of Plauen.

Children played with the Hot Wheels and Barbies that came with their Happy

Meals, and smiling workers poured free refills of coffee. Outside the window,

three bright red flags bearing the golden arches fluttered in the wind (515).

McDonald’s showing kids that they can get milkshakes and a “Happy Meal” with a toy is too

much for most children to resist. This causes parents, in an attempt to satisfy their children, to

bring their children to McDonald’s instead of simply saying no. Little kids cannot see the

consequences of eating excessive amounts of food that should be consumed only sparingly.

They do not know what will happen if they eat too many calories or grams of fat. They only

know that if they get a “Happy Meal” they will get a toy to play with and are blinded by that

hope.

False hope can be found anywhere. It is not only coming from fast food restaurants, but

from various industries. One place this occurs is Las Vegas which is described when Schlosser

writes, “It is the ultimate consumer technology, designed to manufacture not a tangible product,

but something much more elusive: a brief sense of hope. That is what Las Vegas really sells, the

most brilliant illusion of all, a loss that feels like winning” (503). The reason that the false hope

exists is because people know that they might win money at the machines, and so they figure that

they will have to eventually win, giving them hope. However, it is false hope because gambling

is not a guaranteed win, and the idea of winning hides the fact that they will more than likely end

up losing. Schlosser describes how the machines are now designed to make money for the

casino. They are connected to a central computer so that the amount of money given does not

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exceed the profit (Schlosser, 503). Winning money, though it does tend to draw in people, is not

the only attraction people have towards Las Vegas. Other appealing parts of Las Vegas are “The

Mirage—with its five-story volcano, its shark tank, dolphin tank, indoor rain forest, Lagoon

Saloon, DKNY boutique, and Secret Garden of Siegfried & Roy—is a fine place for the surreal.

Even its name suggests the triumph of illusion over reality, a promise that you won’t believe

your eyes” (Schlosser, 501). Before seeing all that Las Vegas has to offer, these attractions

promise the hope of happiness. However, it is also a commercial area which means that prices

will be higher than normal, and tourists will probably have to the desire to visit everything in the

city, which can really add up.

This idea of seeing the world in one area also helps the city’s popularity. Schlosser helps

to show this when he writes, “The fast food joints along the Strip seem insignificant compared to

the new monuments towering over them: recreations of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty,

and the Sphinx, enormous buildings that evoke Venice, Paris, New York, Tuscany, medieval

England, ancient Egypt and Rome, the Middle East, the South Seas” (502). Las Vegas has made

it possible to see the world without flying to many different cities around the world. Again, the

hope that one can see the world in a day hides the fact that it is not the same experience as going

to a city across the ocean. This in turn creates a false global hope.

False hope can be found in all regions of the globe. McDonald’s was first brought to

Japan by Den Fujita. He told the people, “‘If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a

thousand years…we will become taller, our skin will become white, and our hair will be

blonde’” (Schlosser, 499). Though it is not clear whether the people of Japan believed Fujita’s

claim or not, it is likely that there were people who did. This gave hope to the people who

wished they could become “white” despite the lack of truth in Fujita’s statement. Schlosser also

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offers another example false hope when he writes, “The anthropologist Yunxiang Yan has noted

that in the eyes of Beijing consumers, McDonald’s represents ‘Americana and the promise of

modernization.’ Thousands of people waited patiently for hours to eat at the city’s first

McDonald’s in 1992” (498). This demonstrates the effect of empty promises. Though

McDonald’s originated in America, it cannot promise that it will bring modernization because it

is only a restaurant just as eating at McDonald’s can not make people “white.” The idea of fast

food may be a modern concept, but it is only a small part of what modernization really means.

Modernization means the evolution of technology and the increase of efficiency within society.

Individuals have the power to decide how they will allow this technology and efficiency to affect

them.

Individuals can change the total impact an industry has on a city or nation. For example,

Schlosser writes,

On March 31, 1999, the three Court of Appeal justices overruled parts of the

original McLibel verdict, supporting the leaflet’s assertions that eating

McDonald’s food can cause heart disease and that workers are treated badly. The

court reduced the damages owed by Steel and Morris to about ₤40,000…

McDonald’s was tired of the bad publicity and wanted this case to go away. But

Morris and Steel were not yet through with McDonald’s. They appealed the

Court of Appeal decision to the British House of Lords and sued the police for

spying on them (514).

This quote demonstrates the huge effect that individuals can have on a company. It is true that

Morris and Steel did not win their case against McDonald’s, but they were able to change the

way that the people in their society view McDonald’s. The spread of the negative effects of the

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restaurant caused the people to consider the consequences of eating there. The individual effect,

though it did not stop the industry, created a problem for the company that it had to surpass in

order to be successful. The efforts of Morris and Steel show how it does not take a large and

powerful group of people to take down a multi-national company. Individuals can do their part

even if it is as small as starting a petition, staging a protest, or meeting with a leader of a

company like McDonald’s.

So behind the blinding lights of Las Vegas and the glowing golden arches of McDonald’s

are the hidden truths that the people of the world have failed to see. Those truths whether they

are nutritional facts or gambled savings are hurting the global society. They are causing people

to gain weight, get heart complications, and lose money and valued possessions. People need to

realize what is actually happening to them before they give into what they see or hear from

advertisements. By acting against these non-truths, people can change the outcome of the effects

that different industries have on their lives. It is only by taking a stand ahead of time that the

world can end some of the problems it faces everyday.