Supersize Me Reflection

Oversized children repeatedly singing, “Mcdonald’s, Mcdonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut!” (Super Size Me, 2004). This was the opening scene to the well known documentary that shocked Americans and other viewers, possibly even leaving them in disgust. Super Size Me, written and directed by American documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, was a film about a constant growing problem in America, obesity. During the time of the film, obesity was the second leading cost of preventable deaths, after smoking. During the making of the film, nearly 100 million Americans were either overweight or obese, over 60% of U.S. adults. This film was inspired by the lawsuit towards Mcdonald’s by two obese girls in 2003; Jazlyn Bradley who was 19, …show more content…
This inspired Spurlock to document his journey with his McDiet, a 30 days plan to eat nothing else but food purchased from McDonald’s, including bottled water; He also had to abandon any form of exercise besides the average walking distances of most americans and had to supersize meal every time he was asked to. In the course of this time, Spurlock gained a ridiculous amount of weight, had his cholesterol and body fat percentage shoot up, setting himself for a higher risk of certain disease, and even becoming addicted to the food, being depressed and having headaches when not eating McDonald’s food. Through the clever inclusion of imagery and irony in Super Size Me, Spurlock directs the blame of America’s increasing issue of obesity towards fast food …show more content…
Throughout the film, when introducing different topics, pictures of Ronald McDonald’s would be shown of him in a sinister manner. Ronald McDonald was used as a symbol of how Mcdonald’s appears to be a family friendly business, especially with the use of happy meals and the McDonald’s Playland, appealing to the children to encourage their parents to bring them there, unaware of physical and internal damage their food could bring to their health. McDonald’s mostly leaves out the negative facts about their business, such as barely having their nutrition facts up for consumers to be aware of what is in their product, which is symbolized through the evil look on Ronald McDonald’s face, showing that the bad is hidden. Along with the images of Ronald Mcdonald, certain music would be playing, mostly about fat in foods from McDonald’s, or just fat on a human being in general, songs such as “Rock n Roll McDonald’s” by Wesley Willis. This song includes the lyrics, “McDonald 's will make you fat. They serve Big Macs. They serve Quarter-Pounders. They will put pounds on you” (Willis, Wesley). This and the other songs included were used to add to the fact of how negative the food from McDonald’s and other fast food companies can be on human bodies, causing America to be the fattest country in the