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McDonald's and Sony Offer Music Downloads
J ROC writes "CNet reports that McDonalds and Sony are teaming up to offer free music downloads to customers who buy a Big Mac Extra Value Meal. The offer, which begins on June 8, offers customers an access code to download one free song at Sony's Connect online music store. Hmmm, let's see, about 600 calories in a Big Mac, an average of 12 songs on a CD, so that's about 7200 calories you will need to consume in order to get an album's worth of music (and I'm not including the calories from the fries and softdrink). Does this offer also include a free gym membership?"
Sigh, not _yet another_ incentive for kids to eat unhealthy garbage and get fat. McD's could get better kudos by only offering it with "healthy" things like salad.
But wait, they don't *do* healthy things.
$ mv *.sig >/dev/null
When I think McDonalds, I think convenience. Then I think, what the fuck can eat here that won't kill me? Then I think salad. Or grilled chicken, no mayo.
Why are people so worked up about McDonald's food these days? It's never been a big secret that fast food isn't healthy. After all, it's called Junk Food for a reason. Heck, McDonald's has had nutritional information posted in their restaurants for twenty years. (And it's on their website too.) Anybody who cares the slightest about what they eat has all the information they need to make an informed decision. McDonald's doesn't hold a gun to your head and make you buy/eat their food. It's not addictive. If they want to gorge and eat an UltraMegaSized Triple Big Mac with extra mayo, why should you care?
If you don't like the food at McDonald's, buy your food somewhere else. Is it too much to ask people to accept some personal responsibility for their lifestyle choices?
If you're so worried about how unhealthy it is then don't eat it. People are so wrapped up in blaming others for their faults that they don't see the truth. No one is forcing you to eat 1000+ calorie meals. You make the choice and you have to live with the consequences.
Excessive consumption of fast food IS the enemy. It is easy to blame people health problems on fast food companies but when it comes down to it, the problem is really with the mental state of people today. We want everything right now, and we want LOTS of it. If everyone ate fast food in moderation and got some exercise there wouldnt be any problem. The same goes with drinking, drugs, partying, eating OTHER food, sex, porn.. etc etc etc... Its all too east to OVERindulge in something that has the perceived benefit of being fast, or makes you feel good. There is a healthy balance, and once people figure this out there wont be a problem anymore. But we dont have to worry about that happening anytime soon. I personally think we should worry about cutting down on people smoking. More people die annually because of smoking then they do of obiesity. If we can get people to give up smoking, which people have been doing for ages, it should be easy enough to get people to realize the dangers of eating fast foor every day.
Not to rain on the joke... but making people fat would only keep them INDOORS, behind a computer screen downloading music. Therefore, if RIAA would be behind it they have made a terrible choice in presenting it.
Hmmm.
I haven't seen it yet (I'm waiting to finish "Fast Food Nation" first) but I hear it's good.
It's very funny and well made, but his point utterly fails. First off, he does something inordinately stupid.. he comes up with "rules" that virtually guarantee he'll eat the biggest, most fattening thing that they offer. And then when he becomes sick, he expects you to have not expected this in the first place.
This is one of those "well, duh" moments. It's like when researchers announce that they've done some 3 years of studies and found that kids don't like to go to school. Well, duh.
If you eat nasty fattening shit all day, every day, you won't be healthy. If you override your body's desires for foods that it needs with some arbitrary set of rules, you won't be healthy.
Health isn't a matter of what kind of foods you eat. Not really. Health is a matter of balance. Sometimes you need fat in your meal. Other times you need salad. If you eat the same damn thing all the time, it doesn't matter *what* it is, you're not eating healthy by definition.
He's trying to make a point that this food is unhealthy. In this, he fails miserably. The food is not unhealthy. His behavior in eating nothing but that food is unhealthy. If he wanted to prove that any particular chain was unhealthy, he should have tried to eat a balanced diet using only foods from that chain. They have a big menu for a friggin' reason. They do offer salads. They do offer healthy choices (admittedly, not many). Just because they offer a lot of fatty foods doesn't mean you have to eat nothing but those fatty foods.
So the movie, while funny, utterly fails to make any commentary that has any real meaning. It's a mockumentary at best. He didn't actually prove anything that anybody wouldn't have known from hearing the premise. "Well, duh."
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I keep seeing that commercial for the new happy meal with the "step counter" in it and that stupid woman walking up the steps while her friend takes the elevator.
Like we're supposed to believe that just because McDonald's gave her a stupid step counter, that she's not going to be lazy and take the elevator.
Come on... you know she took the elevator.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Those are 9 and 10 year olds, but its the parents who buy the food. How many parents really think that McDonalds is good for you?
Set aside the sucky iTunes song quality, and the fact they screw over musicians. , and setting aside that Fatty Fast foods are addicting, and bad for you. The cost of a Big Mac is in upwards of 3 dollars, and one song on iTunes is $1.00. Why not buy two songs from iTunes, and go buy a hot dog from a hot dog stand.
What's another word for Thesaurus?
-Steve Wright
You should see the movie because that's the whole point. Personally I can't stand fast food, and lately my girlfriend and I have been cooking most of our meals, avoiding processed foods, etc.
But if you see the Supersize Me documentary, it shows you just how 'entrenched' our society is with all this fast-food and junk foods. The movie opens with a large group of little kids singing a song about pizza hut, kfc, and mcdonalds. It's more than just pop culture, fast food images are embedded into their heads through tv commercials, public school meal programs, and even summer-camp songs (as that song demonstrates).
In the movie they talk with the lobby group (i forget the name) that represents mcdonalds and all the other huge multinational fast-food and other food companies. They have tons of power, and lobby the gubmint to pass favorable legislation for them, etc.
Another point brought out by the movie is that this crappy food is so cheap that for many people it's what they depend on. And one really does have to go out of their way to avoid it completely (not just mcdonalds but all fast food and other questionable food companies like kraft, heinz, etc that load their foods w/ sugars/fats as well).
make world, not war
Exactly.
For the 12 billionth time, who the hell wants a crippled product, even if it *is* "free". Yipee! I have my regular music collection PLUS 4 "free" crippled songs! When I want to play any of those 4 songs I am required to switch to a different crippled music player! Yipee!
I'll stick with Winamp and shuffleplay ALL of my non-crippled files at once thankyouverymuch.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Not to mention all the parents that are drug to McDonalds by their kids.
Unless the kid is driving with a gun to the parent's head, blame the parent. Any parent who does whatever their kids want just to keep them quiet is a bad parent. Kids do not KNOW what is good for them, because they are kids and don't have the experience or the rational thinking skills. That's why parents make their kids' decisions for them. Allowing kids to do whatever they want just to keep them quiet is a recipe for disaster. The stereotypical kid you see on commercials, wild and rowdy and only calm when they get product x, just feeds into this mindset that kids should get a say and it matters what kids think. You should always listen to your kids, and let them make choices that are appropriate for them to make, but you shouldn't let them dictate to you what and where they eat. Do this thing called 'parenting' and you won't end up with 400lb tv-addicted ignorant kids. Or, foist that responsibility off on everyone else, and stop bitching about how your kids turned out.
http://xkcd.com/386/
After reading FFN, I would have to agree that fast food industry is not a happy place, but the fact is it's not going anywhere. Advertising creates demand . As for In N Out, yeah they rock! I was very happy that they opened resturaunts in Arizona! Even my kids won't eat McNasty burgers now they have had In N Out.. worth the drive, worth the wait for FRESH food. Also I have seen there job postings, $9/hr to start! and people who are happy working there tend to produce a better product. (How much *Good* code would you write for $5.35 hr?)
*narf!*
Judging by their commercials, they're promoting their 'healthy' food to the 30-something female crowd, probably trying to encourage moms to give in to their kids' demands to go there.
The free downloads would appeal more to people in their teens, and they aren't the ones worried so much about fat and calories.
pop music has been placed in the same class as a side of fries.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Two of my great joys in life are putting a CD on for the first time and discover that it's a fantastic piece of music and having a good meal in a restaurant I've tried for the first time. The fun in both of these activities is increased by a degree of exploration - either trawling through Internet music sites and music shop displays or driving around in an unknown area to find a good-looking place to eat.
I'm not into fast food particularly or music downloads (music for me is about full albums, not single tracks) but I have no issue with McDonalds selling fast food or Sony/iTunes/etc. selling downloadable music, if that's what people want.
I do have a problem with the modern general populace, however. Many people today, especially the youth generation, seem to want to live in this constant "safe zone" of life - at least here in the UK, they want the same theme pubs, fast food joints and bland popular music. In all three cases, they are assured of knowing "exactly what they are getting" beforehand without any risk of paying for something they may not think is worth the money. They rely on "product branding" to keep them from taking any risks in life and, to me, seem to live in fear of the unknown because standing out from the crowd would not be "cool".
I don't claim to understand their motivations and when I was their age, I had many of the same traits. I therefore hope they learn, like I did, to develop the confidence in their own decision making and to not give a damn about what "everyone else" is doing and make their own decisions.
In the meantime, just how many musicians and chefs are there out there who, because they are not a mainstream "branded product", have not had the opportunity to play us their music or cook us a meal?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
the SuperSize Me guy must be ticked... he coulda at least got some song downloads for all his trouble/liver damage =)
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Or do you want to come over to my house for a home-cooked chilli, a few beers and some classic rock music cranked up to full volume on my hi-fi?
Enough said...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
The average north american likes mcdonalds. No one knows why. Despite the low quality of food and the fact that just sitting in a mcdonalds, you are getting second hand fat, people still eat there. Maybe it's just the way we where brough up.
But people also like pretebding they are healthy. How many people order diet pop with their quarter pounder. Now salad is just another excuse for people to eat at McDonalds and convince themselves they are healthy. Or even better, atkins burgers (that's right, if you order the same burger, but no bread, you are healthy... umm... NO!)
Salad at McDonalds is just part of the 'i want to get healthy but don't want to do anythign to do it' mentality that's so prevelant in north america and gives birth to dumb ideas like the atkins diet (i mean, who follows the diet of a guy who died of obesity...)
The Neo-Bohemian Techno-Socialist
I haven't seen the movie. I'm guessing it's not a bad documentary, but as a medical experiment, it seems somewhat lacking.
The hook for the movie is that the guy tried an all fast-food diet for a month, and he blimped. Gained something like fifty pounds. But he was eating approximately 5000 calories a day. It doesn't really matter what form those calories take. I don't care if you're on Atkins, or a vegetarian, or eating an all snail diet: at 5000 calories a day, you're going to get supersized.
Another documentary is coming out later this year, which involves someone eating nothing but fast food and losing weight, simply by keeping total calories in check. I think there's some Big Food cash sponsoring it, but it does make a good point: From a weight loss standpoint, the total number of calories consumed and burned makes a much bigger difference than the source of said calories.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
Unless the kid is driving with a gun to the parent's head, blame the parent. Any parent who does whatever their kids want just to keep them quiet is a bad parent. Kids do not KNOW what is good for them, because they are kids and don't have the experience or the rational thinking skills. That's why parents make their kids' decisions for them. Allowing kids to do whatever they want just to keep them quiet is a recipe for disaster. The stereotypical kid you see on commercials, wild and rowdy and only calm when they get product x, just feeds into this mindset that kids should get a say and it matters what kids think. You should always listen to your kids, and let them make choices that are appropriate for them to make, but you shouldn't let them dictate to you what and where they eat. Do this thing called 'parenting' and you won't end up with 400lb tv-addicted ignorant kids. Or, foist that responsibility off on everyone else, and stop bitching about how your kids turned out.
Have you raised many kids lately? It's easy to say it harder to do it. My parents did a fair job with my little brother but he still whines and moans. Even though we rarely give in. However due to time contraints of having to work more then full time my parents have given in once in a whiel and also feel bad soemtiems when they don't. It's not so easy. You can only be a parent part time due to the economic realities that this society enforces. We all must be dual income households. We all must work 40+ hours a week. Some work more to better the lfie of their children.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
I can't find any links right now, but I recently read that only 1-2% of their sales are from the "healthy food" product line. I suppose you could view this as a way for McDonalds to promote their healthy stuff, but since Sony is the one paying for the advertising here, I'm sure they want to get their message on the product that falls into the 98% category.