商品詳細

Since the first McDonald's appeared on the landscape of southern California in the early 1950s, the franchise has spread into an enormous empire. Examining the McDonald's empire to see what it says about American history and politics, this book presents a series of ethnographic vignettes organized around historical material, theoretical discussions and social criticism. It aims to show that, while a hamburger might be a mundane commodity, it can be marketed as much more. By using the burger-as-spectacle approach, McDonald's revolutionized modern advertising - selling social relations instead of food. The authors expore how these advertisements in particular, and cultural messages in general, serve to regulate populations to bring about desired behaviours. By billing themselves as a safe haven for children where what you want is what you get, McDonald's has appropriated the image of home and family as a means of legitimizing itself in an era of big business.