McDonald's now has a site (called i-am-asian.com) for Asian Pacific Islander Americans which features the tagline, "I am Asian." More text from the site:
We're Asian and Pacific Islander Americans "living on the rim," where our diverse cultures and the everyday American lifestyle become one. We're hanging on to our great traditions while we move to the beat of the times. We honor our heritage - but we love being Americans. From high fashion to high tech, from Asian Pacific American hip hop to haute cuisine, we're weaving the threads of our culture into the fabric of everyday American life. Whether we're sipping green tea or enjoying a Big MacŪ sandwich, we're helping make the magic mix called America become even richer. And McDonald's is right there with us, everyday!Amazing. If it's not bad enough that McDonald's has no problems appropriating ethnic and racial identities for their own marketing purposes, check out this gem of a statement on their trivia page - "Antarctica is the only continent that does not have a McDonald's restaurant - yet."
Ugh.
hmmm. Ick. I just get a woozy tummy when I think about McD's lately, after the whole "Supersize Me" documentary. Blech. So McD's is peddling their "toxic liver producing" stuff all over the world.
It just makes me cringe to think how much I ate this when I was young, (I loved McNuggets) and how many people feed their children lots of McD's cause it's easy. What will be the consequences of this icky food? It reminds me of the section in Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett's "Good Omens" where "famine" produces totally non-caloric fast food, where people eat it, and starve to death. I'm not sure it's far off!
I don't see why McDonalds really is such a news maker. It doesn't employ child penny labor in countries like Thailand and India. It doesn't violate country laws. It doesn't push local business into bankruptcy.
If only half of our international corporations respected the labor rights of the global community as much as McDonalds.
McDonalds provides health care benefits for all its full time employees worldwide with the exception of countries that have socialized medicine and Southeast Asia (which apparently has extremely sketchy health insurance practices).
Now, I'm not saying their corporate record is clean...but they seem to have a few more corporate scruples than, say, the gap.
Very good find.
When I was living in Japan we used to always say Mikudonadurutsu and ketchapu-idonia (no ketchup) - for no particular reason - we'd just sort of say it every few minutes, randomly... we've now added Birry Bookcase mantra that we chant during treks around the rat mazes of Ikea ...
I was particularly bummed the last time I was in Rome and I had 12 hours before my flight to Amsterdam (coming from Boston) so I was wandering around dazed and confused at 3am with no idea where I was going and it was nearly impossible to take a pic without getting a McD sign in it.
Whatever - they're not the worst company in the world - I just don't understand why so many people in the world want to eat so much crappy food.
Fun blog - found it on Seablogs.
And, yah - I'd love an invite to Orkut - if for no other reason than to check it out.
3 words: Fast Food Nation.