Morgan Spurlock'S "Super Size Me" And Fast Food Chains' Crisis

Did you know that the USA has the highest rate of obesity in the world? Did you also know in 2004 Mississippi had the highest rate of obese people? 1 in 4 people in Mississippi are obese (Super Size Me, 2004). What did society do about it though? Nothing, in 2004, super size options were available, one super-size fries at MacDonalds weighed 7 ounces (Warner, 2004), which is roughly 198 grams.

This whole super-size crisis stopped after a man named Morgan Spurlock created a documentary called 'Super-Size Me'. This documentary proved that MacDonald's option of 'Super-Size' can, in fact, cause obesity. In this 30-day binge eating adventure, we are brought to a point that this documentary represents a valid point of 'medium is the message'. After this documentary was made, society took the medium message and changed the way fast food outlets work. Before we get to the ending lets take a look at how this message evolves into being valid.

MacDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut.' This is a song, sung by children ageing from 10 to 12, whom we assume are at a ‘fat camp', this is the opening scene for Spurlock's documentary. Catchy song though isn't it, the perfect way to grab the attention of the viewer and point to the children singing about fast food. America wouldn't care anyway about children being exposed to the disease of obesity as their prize possession is fast food, especially MacDonalds. 'Since 1980 the number of obese people in America have doubled, twice as many in children and three times in adolescents' (Scene 1, Spurlock). This is fact pointed out by Spurlock, showing statistics such as this proves America has a problem with eating. A society such as America knows that fast food is a problem, yet they do nothing to help themselves; until a pair of two teenage girls sued MacDonalds for making them eat their food and causing them to be obese. This opened the eyes to the public and Morgan Spurlock who was inspired by this lawsuit to make this documentary.

By doing this it passes on a medium message to society to stop putting unhealthy food first and put consequences first. Eye-opening statistics and recordings of overweight people catch the eye of the audience wanting more. This help conveys the medium is the message as the people tend to see these kinds of facts and want to change their diet, intake of fast food or in general, a fast food outlet may want to change their menu. However, there are some extreme measures that Americans have to go through in order to get thin again. Americans try to lose weight by trying things such as weight watchers, cutting out sugar/fast food and going on strict diets. For most Americans, this doesn't work they either break their diet rules or don't exercise enough which results in them going back their old habits.

What most Americans did in 2004 and still do, is go through Gastric Bypass surgery as a last resort when all healthy options have failed. In this operation, there's a band wrapped around your stomach to stop you from eating too much. Spurlock films the operation and the song 'Blue Danube Waltz' plays over it, we picture this song as graceful which is what this operation is graceful. Americans have become immune to not eating healthy that they gracefully go through this surgery to become 'thin' again.

Doctors tell Spurlock that they have become so familiar with the operation it only takes them 30 minutes to do the operation. Professional such as doctors have become more familiar with Gastric Bypass surgery than society has about fast food. This scene really set the medium is the message as by now most of us are repulsed that Americans go to these extreme measures. Society sees this as a change for the better health of America but the medium hidden in this scene is it's not. Society rejects this operation as they believe they can do better things to improve their healthy lifestyle, starting with fast food restaurants.

Scene 1, an opening scene full of statistics and complete confrontation of how unhealthy America really is. What you probably gather is the fact that they let this happen to themselves. MacDonalds isn't to blame for overweight or obese in America, or so they say. The Gastric ByPass surgery scene shows us the consequences of being obese.

This whole documentary caused us to feel repulsed and disgusted of the MacDonald's outlet due to how unhealthy their options are. But, did this documentary didn't stop Americans or anyone from eating MacDonalds, more so it stopped MacDonalds from their evil temptations.

This documentary received excellent outcomes, although MacDonalds denies it, they stripped Super-size options and introduced 'Go-active' adult meals, also put up nutritional charts. Schools deprived their cafeterias of sugary, fatty drinks and food. All these outcomes point to one message and that is the medium is the message. MacDonalds stripping their super-size option made other fast food outlets take theirs away too. Schools introduced healthier options which creates kids to be more healthy and give them an educational understanding of health and nutrients. 'The Medium is the Massage is a look-around to see what's happening. It is a collide-scope of interfaced situations.'— Marshall McLuhan.

For those who aren't familiar with 'medium is the message' the medium embeds itself in the message to convey a symbiotic relationship by the medium influencing how the message is perceived. Spurlock has courageously gone on this 30-day binge to prove a point such as this, we are greeted with valid points throughout the documentary that shows the validity of 'medium is the message.' Kids are shown singing a fast food theme song and it's later proved they know that song better than the national anthem. People have become so involved in fast food that they can't eat proper healthy food, which means they go through surgery. Situations of unhealthy fast food are normally protested as 'stop serving the food or stop eating it'.

It does no good to spark a chain reaction but this documentary did, all fast food outlets scrapped super-size options, schools turned healthy and millions of people were made aware of the issue. One little documentary can cause a huge domino effect and it wasn't the overall message of 'fast food is unhealthy' it was the medium message that sparked the dominoes to fall. Thank you.