Semiotics of McDonald's by Paul Thomas

Before making the left turn on the 2100 block of York Road in Timonium, you are bombarded with advertisements on billboards, posters, and signs which enter your mind and trigger your brain into thinking you need that “Big Mac” that’s pictured to look like the perfect appetite pleaser. In 1954, a fifty-two-year-old milk-shake machine salesman saw a hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California, and envisioned an enormous new industry: fast food. In what many call the golden years, Raymond Kroc, the founder and builder of McDonald's Corporation, proved himself an industrial genius. McDonald’s is the world leader in the fast food industry. McDonald’s offers a wide array of services: Breakfast foods such as Egg McMuffins, orange juice, hash browns, and coffee. They also serve lunch and dinner as well. Popular foods are the Big Mac, McDonald’s French Fries, Kid’s Meals, and milk shakes. At McDonal

Although waiters and waitresses don't come to your table with a notepad and pen, eager to please and top up your wine glass, patrons do receive food extremely quickly. You order and pay at the front counter and a young employee hands the food over on a tray to take back to a table of your choice. McDonalds cunningly omits straws and utensils from the tray, which allows the kids to skip over to a nearby table and grab a handful of the essentials. For some reason, it fills them with delight.

I usually feast on a Quarter Pounder with Cheese with a side of fries and a medium coke. The Quarter Pounder is like an adult version of the cheeseburger, and just as satisfactory. I am still waiting for the day my burger resembles the burger on the picture board above the serving counter.

The way that Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers does business and markets it's product to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as “Mcdonaldization”. “McDonaldization", as used by George Ritzer, author of The McDonaldization of Society, refers to the creation of "rationalized systems" to perform everyday functions such as food preparation, retail

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