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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?"
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.
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."
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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.
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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.
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?
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