I missed the opportunity to rate the food at the med ball and since I am never sure when the next free feed is going to be I thought I would try something different. I am going to dabble in blogging about fast food chains. There will also be a challenge for each fast food blog. Details about the challenges will be explained further in each of the blogs.
Here is your first fast food blog
McDonalds
Its 11am on Sunday. I have Goon seeping out of my pores. There is only one thing on my mind, the big red and yellow M.
The McDonald’s restaurant I am about to enter is one of 149 in New Zealand, 149 out of 34,000 in the world. I am one of 47 million people (60% of those people are stoned) served each day that are desperate for a maccas fix. I am no different.
The most difficult decision of my entire day stands before me. Do I get a Big Mac or a McChicken or both? Do I get a cheeseburger as well? Determinants of this decision are usually whether I have had a feed at BK or J&M’s or on the contrary emptied the contents of my stomach in a projectile fashion the night before. These two burgers are without a doubt the best value for money. I don’t even consider the fillet o fish here, who the hell would buy that ratty burger. I have only ever seen it purchased once and that was by a Japanese couple and we all know how much they love fish. I ask my flatmates what they are getting. It does’t help at all I have never really figured out why people do this and now its just force of habit. I opt for both burgers, one will come in handy later.
On exiting with my brown bag following my flatmate who decided the trays were complimentary, I wondered how much power my bag punched. I did some research.
Energy in my meal
Big Mac-2060kJ
McChicken-1530kJ
Medium Fries-1380kJ
Medium Coke- 614kJ
Total-5584kJ!
Now for all you commerce students out there, that means if I was to light this bag on fire and place it in my small bedroom, the temperature would increase by 38.7 degrees Celsius, who needs firewood! I also worked out that it would take 3 and a half hours (1600kJ/hour) to dance it off in town, or around one hour if you are at a drum and bass gig with a lolly (4000kJ+/hour). So if you don’t want the extra calories going straight to your thighs, maybe scope out the next gig?
While devouring my meal in front of the TV, I notice a McDonald’s ad going on about how the Deluxe cheeseburger is back for a limited time. My life suddenly just got better.
The Deluxe cheeseburger is back!
I’m sure a lot of you like me have frothed over the re-introduction of the deluxe cheeseburger. An addition of lettuce and mayo to a standard maccas patty with cheese seems like an easy enough creation, but the result is my taste-buds all having a synchronised orgasm. This makes it terribly addictive. Apparently it has similar addiction stats to crystal meth with 90% of first users becoming addicts. I vouch for that (the burgers not the drugs). Additional to this it’s only $2 where a normal cheeseburger is $2.20! What’s going on here? Surely the term deluxe means its better justifying a more expensive price, not here. It seems you get more (lettuce and mayo) for a cheaper price. The only difference is the gherkins in the normal cheeseburgers which made me hypothesise if this was the factor determining the cheaper price. I set out to investigate.
Method-Contact McDonald’s customer services via e-mail.
The McDonald’s restaurant I am about to enter is one of 149 in New Zealand, 149 out of 34,000 in the world. I am one of 47 million people (60% of those people are stoned) served each day that are desperate for a maccas fix. I am no different.
The most difficult decision of my entire day stands before me. Do I get a Big Mac or a McChicken or both? Do I get a cheeseburger as well? Determinants of this decision are usually whether I have had a feed at BK or J&M’s or on the contrary emptied the contents of my stomach in a projectile fashion the night before. These two burgers are without a doubt the best value for money. I don’t even consider the fillet o fish here, who the hell would buy that ratty burger. I have only ever seen it purchased once and that was by a Japanese couple and we all know how much they love fish. I ask my flatmates what they are getting. It does’t help at all I have never really figured out why people do this and now its just force of habit. I opt for both burgers, one will come in handy later.
On exiting with my brown bag following my flatmate who decided the trays were complimentary, I wondered how much power my bag punched. I did some research.
Energy in my meal
Big Mac-2060kJ
McChicken-1530kJ
Medium Fries-1380kJ
Medium Coke- 614kJ
Total-5584kJ!
Now for all you commerce students out there, that means if I was to light this bag on fire and place it in my small bedroom, the temperature would increase by 38.7 degrees Celsius, who needs firewood! I also worked out that it would take 3 and a half hours (1600kJ/hour) to dance it off in town, or around one hour if you are at a drum and bass gig with a lolly (4000kJ+/hour). So if you don’t want the extra calories going straight to your thighs, maybe scope out the next gig?
While devouring my meal in front of the TV, I notice a McDonald’s ad going on about how the Deluxe cheeseburger is back for a limited time. My life suddenly just got better.
The Deluxe cheeseburger is back!
I’m sure a lot of you like me have frothed over the re-introduction of the deluxe cheeseburger. An addition of lettuce and mayo to a standard maccas patty with cheese seems like an easy enough creation, but the result is my taste-buds all having a synchronised orgasm. This makes it terribly addictive. Apparently it has similar addiction stats to crystal meth with 90% of first users becoming addicts. I vouch for that (the burgers not the drugs). Additional to this it’s only $2 where a normal cheeseburger is $2.20! What’s going on here? Surely the term deluxe means its better justifying a more expensive price, not here. It seems you get more (lettuce and mayo) for a cheaper price. The only difference is the gherkins in the normal cheeseburgers which made me hypothesise if this was the factor determining the cheaper price. I set out to investigate.
Method-Contact McDonald’s customer services via e-mail.
Dear Mcdonalds customer services
Hi I am currently doing a school project about marketing, I was wondering why the deluxe cheeseburgers are cheaper than normal cheeseburgers? Is it because of the absence of gherkins?
Larry Gilbert
Hi Larry,
Thank you for your enquiry. The Deluxe Cheeseburger is part of our Value Picks menu, designed to offer our customers a range of promotional items at a low price-point, which are constantly changing. All the best with your assignment.
Kind regards,
Cathy Sutton (Her name have the same initials as customer services, She was born for this job!)
Customer Services
Wow a well-rehearsed answer, this lady has been trained well. Not the specific answer I was looking for but for now I can at least sleep at night.
So there you have it, the deluxe cheeseburgers are cheaper because they are some promotional thingy. It is still really annoying that it is not around all the time. When it isn’t I have to buy a normal cheeseburger and lather mayo on myself, this then ruins the structural integrity of the burger, unbelievable.
One day when I am passing by a local McDonalds, I decide to indulge in a cheeky deluxe. On approaching the counter I notice a box fill of loose change collecting for the Ronald McDonald house. This got me thinking about the McDonald characters.
McDonald’s characters
Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, and Grimace are the main characters of McDonalds we associate with. They fuelled our imaginations in those unforgettable playgrounds that brought so much enjoyment into our lives. Now that I am too tall for those wicked playgrounds I see the characters in a new light.
Ronald- I first saw Ronald as a lovable happy clown that helped sick children. 
However as I grow older and become more cynical he seems more like an albino ginger that has caused an epidemic of childhood obesity. Also I don’t know if you guys know but there are evil versions of him about, they hang around in boogie wonderland wearing black and white make-up instead of red and white. Kind of like red Spiderman and Black Spiderman.
However as I grow older and become more cynical he seems more like an albino ginger that has caused an epidemic of childhood obesity. Also I don’t know if you guys know but there are evil versions of him about, they hang around in boogie wonderland wearing black and white make-up instead of red and white. Kind of like red Spiderman and Black Spiderman. Ronald McDonald and the Ronald McDonald house bring laughter and happiness into sick children’s which is an incredibly kind gesture by McDonalds, it also makes me feel less guilty scoffing down a big Mac because it’s for a good cause!
The Hamburglar-With all cartoon character teams there is a bad guy so it was only suitable that McDonalds create their own baddie-The Hamburglar. Now this is not your typical cartoon bad guy. He doesn’t have aspirations of taking over the world, or making a shit load of money or causing complete chaos. No this guy instead has an eating disorder and will stop at nothing to get hold of those beloved hamburgers. Also his attempt at hiding his identity is pretty feeble. Not many other criminals with a cape and stripped pyjamas. The Hamburglar would be caught on police ten-7 before that old guy could give you the case number. Fortunately for this hungus criminal the staff employed to catch him were less than capable.
Officer Big Mac- Not many of us know much about Officer Big Mac because he was dropped from the McDonalds team in the 80s. It’s no real surprise he was dropped, he has a god damn Big Mac for his head. Imagine trying to chase the Hamburglar with that thing for your head, his balance would be terrible! If he did eventually did catch the Hamburglar it wouldn’t surprise me if he went Hannibal
Grimace-Ok what is going on here. I think the designers got lazy, maybe it was 4.50 on a Friday and they had to come up with a new character quickly? Or he spilt some purple ink all over his page and he thought “that’ll do” It is some sort of purple blob with disproportionate limbs thing that is also handicapped. Man they really short changed grimace here. I was so perplexed I decided to send Cathy another email.
Thanks Cathy, another question
The McDonald’s characters have been an important part of McDonalds marketing strategy. I was wondering what inspired the McDonalds’ characters, especially grimace because I have never really come to grips with what he is.
Thanks for your time
Greg (I had forgotten I had used Larry as my name last time, so God knows what she was thinking)
Greg (I had forgotten I had used Larry as my name last time, so God knows what she was thinking)
Reply
Hi Greg,
Thank you for your email.
The fictional character "Grimace" was created by the McDonald's Corporation in theUSA
"Grimace is a big, loving, fuzzy purple fellow who is Ronald McDonald's best friend. He's sure Ronald is the world's ultimate authority on everything. While Grimace loves all McDonald's food, he's absolutely crazy about shakes. Grimace is very enthusiastic and eager to try new things. His joyous spirit helps everyone overlook the fact he's a little slow and clumsy sometimes."
Kind regards,
Cathy Sutton
Customer Services
Thank you for your email.
The fictional character "Grimace" was created by the McDonald's Corporation in the
"Grimace is a big, loving, fuzzy purple fellow who is Ronald McDonald's best friend. He's sure Ronald is the world's ultimate authority on everything. While Grimace loves all McDonald's food, he's absolutely crazy about shakes. Grimace is very enthusiastic and eager to try new things. His joyous spirit helps everyone overlook the fact he's a little slow and clumsy sometimes."
Kind regards,
Cathy Sutton
Customer Services
Fuzzy purple fellow? What does that mean? Honestly Grimace shouldn’t be trying things if he’s a little slow and clumsy. A slightly less robotic answer than before, but still not really the specific thing I was looking for. The mystery of Grimace will live on.
The Challenge
As I mentioned earlier, for each fast food blog I will be doing a challenge. If I fail to complete the challenge I will be will undergo a punishment decided by my flatmates (one that involves food or drink). For McDonalds the challenge will be to eat a small cheeseburger combo under a minute. Some of you may be aware of this challenge, if you are you will realise that it is more difficult than it seems. I have videoed my attempt at the challenge for your viewing pleasure.
It seemed everything was going well in this challenge until I got to the chips. I definitely underestimated how hard they would be to eat.
Well I hope you enjoyed this new blog. If you have some constructive feedback please don't hesitate to post comments on this page or the facebook page. The next blog will be KFC see you then!
