Mickey D's = Big Brother

Mickey D's = Big Brother

by Liv | Published on October 8th, 2007, 7:55 am | Arts

A few months back I saw the pseudo documentary "Fast Food Nation" from Richard Lanklater. The movie stars Greg Kinnear who is a McDonald's (I mean Mickey D's) executive who is set out to discover why their beef which was apart of a college chemical analysis experiment is showing fecal matter in the beef.

One of the things that has driven me nuts since seeing the movie, is the line where the Mickey D's employee is taking statistical information on you every time you order. Now it's been 15 years since I've worked in Fast Food, and even at that it was a part-time job at Bojangles; but, we never did that.

The movie suggest when you go through the drive-thru or go up to the counter they actually have buttons on the cash register for the employee to hit based on your age, gender, race, etc. This all gets fed into a server that gets uploaded to corporate and gives the head honchos real-time demographic and statistics to sell even more fecal infested meat.

But it is a fictional movie, right?

I started to calm down until I overcame my 6 months of not eating fast food. When the kids finally dragged me out for a happy meal, I made a shocking discovery. Do you remember a few years ago when alot of the fast foods had those 2 way video cameras? You could see them and they could see you. It was supposed to make ordering through the drive-thru quicker and easier. Right? Now those are gone. Or are they? I've noticed alot of the new drive-thru's do have cameras still in them even though the video screens are gone, or even the whole unit has been replaced. Next time you go through the drive-thu, look closely and you'll see a little round hole with a camera in it at the "big" fast food chains. It's not marked, but their is clearly a optical lens which is viewable to those who are looking. It's so non-obvious though, most people probably will never know it's there or what it does. It appears big brother has firmly taken over your local fast food.

Is this okay to do, since no one really knows about it? Replace the company with your telephone company or cable company, the product for a phone, or TV and 1984 seems remarkably like 2007. The good news is now that you know this, you'll never pick your nose in the drive-thru again.

There is a drive through in NC (I'm sure more than one but I rarely do F-Food) where the greeting and other responses are all prerecorded. I was Like "WOW this guy is friendly" ... till I caught on. LOL

Im sure they get statistics from you in all sorts of ways. Probably based on other criteria.

Hardee's does the pre-recorded thing....

or atleast the Randleman road one does...

Yes, I hate it.

Pack a sandwich instead.

-cheaper
-no gas wasted while idling in line
-less calories
-lower cholesterol
-screws big brother

Matt wrote:-screws big brother October 8th, 2007, 10:44 am

Matt wrote:-screws big brother

Matt wrote:Pack a sandwich instead.

-cheaper
-no gas wasted while idaling in line
-less calories
-lower cholesterol
-screws big brother

I stopped going to fast food places after watching "Super Size Me."

I haven't been out to lunch in a long time actually....

I just don't eat.

I do however partake in breakfast in the morning sometimes on my way to work. That's not my fault though, you can't really help that Bojangles makes great cajun chicken biscuits.

Sanjuro wrote:Im sure they get statistics from you in all sorts of ways. Probably based on other criteria.

Hmm. Sure they do. Since there have already been discussions here about Food Lion and now this, here's an idea I've come up with. Why not trade those store discount cards we have with other people. I really don't like using my MVP card and allowing Food Lion to remember everything I've bought. I don't like the fact that it can establish my presence at a particular time and place.

My son bought a used car a few years back from a couple. They were selling it because it belonged to one of their mothers, who'd recently died. My boy finds an MVP card in the glove box and still uses it. I can only imagine what the family thinks when they get those "especially for you" specials in the mail, addressed the deceased mother. I just hope he's not buying condoms, beer and rubber bands.

Nfidel wrote:
Sanjuro wrote: I can only imagine what the family thinks when they get those "especially for you" specials in the mail, addressed the deceased mother. I just hope he's not buying condoms, beer and rubber bands.

Oh man, thanks! I needed that laugh!!

There was actually a big legal brouhaha out in Cali a few years back with those. The idea was that if Sanjuro gets drunk and wrecks his car running over Matt, then Matt can subpoena Sanjuro's MVP card and see that he bought beer that night. Even see how many times he has purchased it and possibly elude to a judgement of character that Sanjuro is a raging alcoholic.

Liv wrote:There was actually a big legal brouhaha out in Cali a few years back with those. The idea was that if Sanjuro gets drunk and wrecks his car running over Matt, then Matt can subpoena Sanjuro's MVP card and see that he bought beer that night. Even see how many times he has purchased it and possibly elude to a judgement of character that Sanjuro is a raging alcoholic.

You guys are killin me! You leave my avatar outta this! :mrgreen:

Liv wrote:There was actually a big legal brouhaha out in Cali a few years back with those. The idea was that if Sanjuro gets drunk and wrecks his car running over Matt, then Matt can subpoena Sanjuro's MVP card and see that he bought beer that night. Even see how many times he has purchased it and possibly elude to a judgement of character that Sanjuro is a raging alcoholic.

Exactly my point. See, Sanjuro needs to give me his card, I'll give mine to Liv but I don't know who in their right mind would give Sanjuro their card.

Except Sanjuro drives like a woman and probably does so better drunk than sober.

In Iowa, the nation's largest supplier of kosher meat was cited for dozens of child labor violations. I found out about this through the offices of The Onion, so I did a Google search for the real story. Oddly enough, I found a whole boatload of horrific news stories about meat packing plants in Iowa. Stuff about illegal immigrants. Comparisons to Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." The story about the child labor violations was further down the page.

Must be a real family-values sort of place, Iowa... :evil:

Worst yet, is think about how many times kids fall into the meat grinder, and we never know it?