McWorld

Last updated

McWorld is a term referring to the spread of McDonald's restaurants throughout the world as the result of globalization, and more generally to the effects of international "McDonaldization" of services and commercialization of goods as an element of globalization as a whole. The name also refers to a 1990s advertising campaign for McDonald's, and a children's website launched by the firm in 2008.

Contents

Critics claim that fast food chain restaurants such as McDonald's are destructive towards many aspects of the indigenous cultures in countries where they have been introduced.

In March 1992, an article first published in The Atlantic Monthly by Rutgers political science professor Benjamin Barber entitled "Jihad vs. McWorld", described international commercialization as one of two great clashing forces of the 21st century, the other being tribalistic fundamentalism. According to his writing, there are four imperatives which constitute the McWorld: a market imperative, a resource imperative, an information technology imperative, and an ecological imperative. The four imperatives are transnational, transideological, transcultural and ecological. The contrasting idea of McWorld, the Jihad, unlike those four imperatives, stresses identity of each community. [1] The clashing forces result from what Barber explains as the two core doctrines of our age: globalism and retribalization.

The article was expanded and published in 1995 as a bestselling book. [2] McWorld does not necessarily relate to democracy. It cares about the elements of democracy, but only to the degree that it promotes economic production and consumption. In the book, Barber explains that liberalization of nation state oriented markets to a globalized market does not seem democratic. Democracy and liberal capitalism are terms commonly used as a correlation; how democracy leads to capitalist economy and vice versa. However Barber argues that multinational corporations pursuing profits outside their home country due to competition has less correlation with open society.

A 1999 book entitled Mustard Seed Versus McWorld by evangelical minister Tom Sine implores Christians to reject the diminution of religious values that he contends results from excessive commercialization. [3]

1990s advertising campaign

The name McWorld was originally the name of a TV campaign for the restaurant by Leo Burnett that ran many of its ads during Saturday morning cartoons and on other television channels and programming blocks targeted at children in the United States in the mid-1990s. The advertisements featured the exciting McDonald's-related happenings that would purportedly occur if children ran the world. [4] These included fantasies such as having gym class every period in school and eating McDonald's at every meal. In addition to planet Earth, McWorld ads featured children ruling school, space, and other arenas typically dominated by an adult hegemony; adults were portrayed as inferior and ineffective. Memorably, each spot concluded with the phrase, "McWORLD! Hey, it could happen!", as a guitar chord played in the background. One such spot won a Golden Marble Award in 1998. [5]

2008 website

McWorld was also the name of an interactive "virtual world" website launched by McDonald's in 2008 on happymeal.com and aimed at children. Visitors to the website could play games, go on quests, earn points and buy accessories for their tree houses and avatars (called "mPals"), including Fez the Monkey, Radish the Dog, and Yammy the Cat. The website shut down on February 7, 2014 and was replaced by McPlay.

While the McWorld website bore some similarities to the ideas in the original McWorld campaign, such as children being in charge, it is an essentially distinct concept, created independently for a younger age group. McWorld was named by a vote of kids on happymeal.com. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Clash of Civilizations</i> Theory of cultural conflict by Samuel P. Huntington

The "Clash of Civilizations" is a thesis that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post–Cold War world. The American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington argued that future wars would be fought not between countries, but between cultures. It was proposed in a 1992 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, which was then developed in a 1993 Foreign Affairs article titled "The Clash of Civilizations?", in response to his former student Francis Fukuyama's 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man. Huntington later expanded his thesis in a 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fast-food restaurant</span> Type of restaurant

A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.

<i>The End of History and the Last Man</i> 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama

The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book of political philosophy by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama which argues that with the ascendancy of Western liberal democracy—which occurred after the Cold War (1945–1991) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)—humanity has reached "not just ... the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Ritzer</span> American sociologist (born 1940)

George Ritzer is an American sociologist, professor, and author who has mainly studied globalization, metatheory, patterns of consumption, and modern/postmodern social theory. His concept of McDonaldization draws upon Max Weber's idea of rationalization through the lens of the fast food industry. He coined the term in a 1983 article for The Journal of American Culture, developing the concept in The McDonaldization of Society (1993), which is among the best selling monographs in the history of American sociology.

McDonaldization is the process of a society adopting the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. The McWord concept was proposed by sociologist George Ritzer in his 1993 book The McDonaldization of Society. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization and scientific management. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as a more representative contemporary paradigm.

A McWord is a word containing the prefix Mc-, derived from the first syllable of the name of the McDonald's restaurant chain. Words of this nature are either official marketing terms of the chain, or are neologisms designed to evoke pejorative associations with the restaurant chain or fast food in general, often for qualities of cheapness, inauthenticity, or the speed and ease of manufacture. They are also used in non-consumerism contexts as a pejorative for heavily commercialized or globalized things and concepts.

A prosumer is an individual who both consumes and produces. The term is a portmanteau of the words producer and consumer. Research has identified six types of prosumers: DIY prosumers, self-service prosumers, customizing prosumers, collaborative prosumers, monetised prosumers, and economic prosumers.

The Arch Deluxe was a hamburger sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's in 1996 and marketed specifically to adults. Despite having the largest advertising and promotional budget in fast food history at the time, it was soon discontinued after failing to become popular. It is considered one of the most expensive product flops of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Barber</span> American political theorist and adviser, and author

Benjamin R. Barber was an American political theorist and author, perhaps best known for his 1995 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld, and for 2013's If Mayors Ruled the World. His 1984 book of political theory, Strong Democracy, was revised and reissued in 2004. He was an adviser to political leaders including Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, and Muammar Gaddafi. He was a board member of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation.

<i>The Lexus and the Olive Tree</i> 1999 book by Thomas Friedman

The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization is a 1999 book by Thomas L. Friedman that posits that the world is currently undergoing two struggles: the drive for prosperity and development, symbolized by the Lexus LS, and the desire to retain identity and traditions, symbolized by the olive tree.

<i>The McDonaldization of Society</i> 1993 English-language book by George Ritzer

The McDonaldization of Society was first proposed by sociologist George Ritzer in an article for The Journal of American Culture and expanded in his 1993 book of the same name. Ritzer suggests that in the later part of the 20th century the socially-structured form of the fast-food restaurant has become the organizational force representing and extending the process of rationalization into the realm of everyday interaction and individual identity. McDonald's of the 1990s serves as the case model. The book introduced the term McDonaldization to learned discourse as a way to describe a social process which produces "mind-numbing sameness", according to a 2002 review of a related academic text.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Burger King</span> Mascot of American food chain Burger King

The Burger King is a king character used as the primary mascot for the fast-food restaurant chain of the same name. The first iteration of the Burger King was part of a sign at the first Burger King restaurant in Miami, Florida, in 1955. Later signs showed the King sitting on a "burger throne" as well as atop the BK sign while holding a beverage. In the early 1970s, Burger King started using a small and animated version of the King in its children's advertising, voiced by Allen Swift. In 1976, the original animated King was replaced by the "Marvelous Magical Burger King" which was a red-bearded and Tudor-era king who ruled the Burger King Kingdom and performed magic tricks that were mostly sleight-of-hand but sometimes relied on camera tricks or involved his "Magic Ring" which could summon copious amounts of food. The Burger King Kingdom advertisements were discontinued in the late 1980s in favor of the BK Kids Club Gang and other advertising programs.

<i>Jihad vs. McWorld</i> Book by Benjamin Barber

Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World is a 1995 book by American political scientist Benjamin Barber, in which he puts forth a theory that describes the struggle between "McWorld" and "Jihad". Benjamin Barber similarly questions the impact of economic globalization as well as its problems for democracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McDonald's</span> American fast food restaurant corporation

McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and, in 1961, bought out the McDonald brothers. Previously headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, it moved to nearby Chicago in June 2018. McDonald's is also a real estate company through its ownership of around 70% of restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey Poupon</span> Brand of mustard originating in France

Grey Poupon is a brand of Dijon mustard which originated in Dijon, France, in 1866.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald McDonald</span> Clown mascot of McDonalds

Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and The Fry Kids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural globalization</span> Transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world

Cultural globalization refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has added to processes of commodity exchange and colonization which have a longer history of carrying cultural meaning around the globe. The circulation of cultures enables individuals to partake in extended social relations that cross national and regional borders. The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing interconnectedness among different populations and cultures. The idea of cultural globalization emerged in the late 1980s, but was diffused widely by Western academics throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. For some researchers, the idea of cultural globalization is reaction to the claims made by critics of cultural imperialism in the 1970s and 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimchi burger</span> Hamburger that includes kimchi in its preparation

A kimchi burger is a hamburger that includes kimchi in its preparation. Several restaurants serve kimchi burgers as part of their fare, including restaurants in South Korea, England and the United States. McDonald's restaurants in South Korea serve kimchi burgers. In addition to kimchi burgers being prepared using ground beef, they may be prepared using seafood, such as salmon. Kimchi burgers are sometimes topped with an egg, and may include additional ingredients such as mayonnaise, barbecue sauce and cilantro, among others.

References

  1. Benjamin R. Barber. (1992, March). "Jihad vs. McWorld," The Atlantic 269(3): 53-65.
  2. Barber, Benjamin R. Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World. Hardcover: Crown, 1995, ISBN   0-8129-2350-2; Paperback: Ballantine Books, 1996, ISBN   0-345-38304-4
  3. Sine, Tom. Mustard Seed Versus McWorld. 1999. ISBN   0-8010-9088-1
  4. Hood, Duncan. "Revenge of the tweens". KidScreen Magazine, March 1, 1999.
  5. "'Raccoon' takes home awards for Hostess, Mithun Esty". bill 'Selling to Kids', September 16, 1998.
  6. McWorld: It's a kid's world where kids rule. Archived 2009-02-12 at the Wayback Machine McDonald's Corporation, 2008.