Dissertation Creation - The UK's original provider of custom dissertations and dissertation help...

Free Dissertations - Marketing Dissertations

The First Example We Will Look At Is That Of The Fast Food Giant Mcdonalds. ...


The first example we will look at is that of the fast food giant McDonalds. McDonalds is one of the planet's most recognisable brands, mainly due to its astute and well-funded marketing campaigns. McDonalds is in the consciousness of virtually every person in the developed world, as well as many who live elsewhere. McDonalds for many years in the 1990's portrayed its food as the choice of the vital, healthy and ‘cool' members of society, and even went as far as to label some of its products as ‘nutritious'. These advertisements were broadcast all over the world, and were targeted and both adults and children. It is clear McDonald's was perpetrating a misconception about the nutritional value of its products in order to sell more. If people had known that McDonalds was in fact unhealthy in many cases and loaded with calories, they may not have eaten so much. However, the campaign by McDonalds was so well done and broadcast at such frequent intervals that many bought into the image and ate McDonalds on a highly regular basis. With the foods high in calories and fat, companies like McDonalds are one of many who have been blamed for the rise in obesity in western countries due to their aggressive and often misleading marketing campaigns.
It is clear that the campaigns of McDonalds have partially contributed to people believing that McDonalds was a fairly healthy and nutritious product and that they could eat it regularly with no adverse side effects. With millions of people now obese, many of whom regularly consume fast food, it is safe to say that deception advertising by McDonalds fooled a lot of people for quite a long time, due to their ability to push their adverts constantly on the public and make their image remembered.
This, the critics would argue, is a clear example of how well-conceived advertising really can fool people. There is no doubting this but it is also clear that this campaign and other ones like it from McDonalds have not had the power to fool all of the people all of the time. In fact, such misrepresentation of facts has caused drastic action to be taken against McDonalds and many people to change their opinions. Even during the advertising campaigns, it is obvious that many people realised McDonalds was unhealthy and that eating it regularly was a bad idea.
It has gone further than that, however, with lawsuits and documentaries being made to highlight the deception. These include the McLibel Trial, a class action lawsuit brought against McDonalds for their misrepresentative advertising and exploitation of the environment and workers. Another backlash from the deceptive advertising was the documentary ‘Super Size Me', which was a response to the over aggressive marketing of McDonalds and their unhealthy meal choices.

Please note: The above dissertation snippet was written by a student and then submitted to us to display and help others. Thanks to all the students who have submitted their work to us.