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Super Size Me (PG) As a child innocent to the ways of the world, my happiness was easily contained in a box – a McDonald’s Happy Meal one, that is. It brought me great joy to open it to see my burger, fries and a precious toy lying at the bottom. I was a classic McDonald’s kid back then. Hey, I even had a part in a McDonald’s commercial when I was in Primary 1, for which I was paid a decent $60 in the early 90s! But as I grew older, I became more aware about what the ‘Golden Arches’ really stood for: a corporation hungry for world domination. Suddenly, those glorious fries didn’t seem so appealing, and watching this film only drove the last nail into the coffin.
Spurlock, who won the Sundance Film Festival’s Best Director award earlier this year, ventured out to various parts of the country, secretly filming McDonald’s outlets with no nutrition information displayed, and less-than-ideal high school lunches. This documentary also details Spurlock’s now-infamous McDonald’s binge experiment, partially inspired by 2 obese New York teens who sued the leading fast food corporation in August 2002 for ‘making them fat’. Over 30 days, Spurlock eats everything offered on the McDonald’s menu at least once – from burgers to breakfast meals to desserts – as well as having to oblige the occasional ‘Super Size’ request, whenever it came. Watching Spurlock shovel burger after burger into his mouth really made my stomach churn by day 3.
A darling at Sundance, Super Size Me opened around the world to mixed reviews. While getting movie critics and fans raving, it naturally provoked a heated response from the corporation in question that went on the offensive. After Guy Russo, McDonald’s Australia’s Managing Director/CEO, watched the film, he had information released on the McDonald’s website and a series of television commercials to debunk what they termed as myths. That said, it certainly seems to have brought about some changes. After the movie debuted in the United States, McDonald’s ceased offering its Super Size meals. It has also released a new healthy salad meal for adults, the Go Active Happy Meal. Despite all that the corporation’s doing now, the damage is done. Even though the experiment was unrealistic (Who actually eats McDonald’s every day of their life?), Spurlock has certainly proven that excessive fast food consumption can be detrimental to one’s health. So clear is his conviction that Spurlock declared in one scene that if ever he drove past McDonald’s with his kid, and he/she insisted on visiting the restaurant, “I’ll punch my kid in the face.”
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here to win Super Size Me Notebooks! (Pictures taken from the official Super Size Me website)
Copyright 2002-2004 "The
UrbanWire.com" Ngee Ann Polytechnic Singapore
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