McDonaldization

Yesterday we had a lecture by Terry Irwin on the phenomenon of McDonaldization and how it works by its four dimentions of desire, predictability, efficiency, calcubility and control. By following these four basic and systematic human desires people can be influenced into buying into a companys ideologies and lifestyle. This Is the power of branding.

Is it all about control and fear? We need to feel certain about ourself and where we fit in to the world, so we buy into large companies and their identities and adopt them as our own, mostly without realising...

I find this whole topic fasiating, especially as when we start to see through the fasade of these big corparate giants they change the game and adapt to what we want them to be, or at least they look like they do, so we as a consumer can feel secure in our choice of product. Mcdonalds as Terry said is a prime example of this fact, they have recently rebranded themselves as being 'green' so as not to lose customers as people are becomming more ethically aware. I think people fundamentally want to do good or at least for their conciences feel they are doing their bit. We are easily swayed though, convienence and familiarality are always going to be at the forefront of our comfort zone. To actually make a real shift towards a more sustainable future we may have to 'change our posture of certinty' and re-educate ourselves.

I was looking on youtube for the newest mcdonalds tv ad and came across this, subliminal advertising? Find this to be very worrying, advertising already has such a major inluence on the way we buy...