Blog Entry 5: Summary and Response Essay

Advertising at Its Best

In the novel, “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal” by Eric Schlosser, the first three chapters illustrate how fast food corporations came to be in the country. In the first chapter “Founding Fathers,” Schlosser explains the history of one man by the name of Carl Karcher, one of the men that changed the way people eat today. Also in this chapter the fast food industry benefited from the automobile company due to the fact that more cars led to the creation of actual drive ins and eventually to the restaurants we go to today. In the second chapter, “Your Trusted Friends,” Schlosser tells the story of two men who used advertising to a certain extent which made their companies flourish and how food advertising affects society. These two men go by the name of Walt Disney and Ray Kroc. They were the two that invented advertising that mainly targeted children. Schlosser also speaks of a professor from Texas A&M university who studies the behavior of children who been affected by ads. This professor states that there are seven types of “nagging” that children use to get what they want from parents and this affects them due to the fact that the parent have no choice but to give in.  The one thing that reoccurred through these chapters was advertising. Each chapter illustrated a certain point towards advertising and how it impacts people as a whole. Advertising influences people from a young age to death to purchase their products. It’s like ads hypnotize people to buy their products in a certain way.

One reason that illustrates how advertising impacts people's lives is the fact that companies use certain techniques to get the consumers attention. When companies use their techniques, they catch the eye of a consumer and the ad would usually have something that would affect the consumer to the point that they purchase it. For example, my grandma and I always watch TV together. Every time we watch TV, she seems to always get hooked on the commercials that have to do with kitchen appliances. The commercials always claim, “This product would change the way you cook in the kitchen and would also save you time” and then they use several people to test out their products then talk on behalf of their product. Once the commercials ended, she would have a pen and paper, ready to call and order the product. At times I ask her why she needs to get the product and she always reply with, “The commercial said that it’ll ease the workload in the kitchen.”

            In the novel, the advertising techniques are best described as making sure that the country is influenced by the advertisement from an early age until they’re not living anymore. One technique discussed in the book, “cradle-to-grave” is an advertising technique that involves companies to create commercial involving advertising that appeals to consumers as young as two. This technique causes young consumers to be influenced to loyal to that specific company and be devoted to learn and know everything about that company and also keep that consumer hooked to buying products from that company (Schlosser 43).

Another reason to the fact that advertising impacts people’s lives is that advertising can also inform people about a certain issue that would ignite the mind of consumers or groups, depending on the advertising. Some ads may contain issues, like presidential elections or elections for state officials while others might contain worldwide issues. These types of ads educate and offer the people a chance to think and respond the way they believe they should. For example, when President Obama created “Obamacare,” there were ads on TV describing his healthcare plan and how it would affect Americans. The commercial says this one line, “To provide affordable, quality healthcare for all Americans, and reduce the growth of healthcare spending.” This line that was on the commercial gave the people an idea to look into Obamacare and actually take an interest in it. After that commercial, more American knew about the plan; some accepted the plan and others rejected the plan. The objective of the commercial was to inform people about the plan and get people to learn more about so they can decide on whether or not the plan is valuable to them.

 Advertising has evolved over the years. From passing out papers to electronically receiving commercials, advertising has impacted people. Some for good reasons and other for bad reasons. In all, advertising is all over and there’s no way to escape the realities of it.