Fast Food
Say hello to Australia’s canniest marketer.
Over the past ten years, Aussies have had every reason to turn their noses up at Maccas.
We started to get more worried about our waistlines. Maccas and the fast food industry got the blame. We became more sophisticated in our taste in food. Mickey D’s isn’t the place you go for a guava and custard apple snow egg. And we’re a nation of caffeine addicts. So we weren’t lovin’ the shortage of short blacks.
But when confronted with every fear we’ve had that could’ve damaged their business, McDonald’s have made sure that our Happy Meals still make us happy.
Continue reading "Whether Big Macs or donuts, we’re still lovin’ Maccas" »
There was a time when putting ‘healthy choice’ and ‘McDonalds’ in the same sentence was considered an oxymoron. Then it became a marketing campaign. Where there were once burgers, fries and soft drinks, menu boards are now filled with bagels, fruit juices and cafe lattes.
What’s more, the buns no longer have sugar in them (well, not much), the cheese is supposedly made from milk and even the McNuggets are said to contain traces of chicken.
And now KFC - that last bastion of dreadfully unhealthy chain-based junk food - has launched a new advertisement trumpeting its quality credentials - slow motion flour-falling-from-the-air-in-a-Master-Chef-style-kitchen and all. How disappointing.
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Wilma J Craig says:
Suffer! Go out & buy an Australian-grown Apple, Australian-grown Banana & a bottle of Australian-grown Orange juice. That’ll settle the hunger pains Read more »
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wise old bantam says:
Arrrggghhh! A Zinger x 2, with hot English mustard, hot chilli sauce on a sesame seed bun, double cheese, with watercress. Heaven. Similar to the Japenese eating blowfish. It’s a life and death challenge. That’s my favourite for a takeaway at KFC. Unfortunately, they don’t make it, so it’s DIY… Read more »
It’s been a big, long angry week with some huge issues on the agenda. This should lighten the tone somewhat.
Not that this issue is small fries. Nuh-uh. You’d have to be a dill not take this seriously. No way are way we gherkin you around on this issue.
So then. Have you ever been to a McDonald’s late at night, or anytime really, and noticed how many people cast aside their pickles?
Continue reading "Friday dilemma: lick the pickle or flick the pickle?" »
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Alicia says:
No subway near me has beetroot… Read more »
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Alicia says:
That’s crap. The ‘story’ does that the pickle is there so it’s not classified as a confectionery item. However, I highly doubt that two pieces of pickle would turn something from being a sugary item into something that isn’t. Pickles aren’t magical. Bring on the pickles! Read more »
McDonalds has bent like the proverbial river weed in the current of coffee snobbery sweeping through Australia.
No longer content to swill International Roast, cheap-a-cinos or the brown-coloured water that percolates through thrice-used grounds, Australians today demand proper coffee.
Where once it was a privilege to sup a cup of creamy latte made from beans harvested from the strained foecal matter of the rare jungle-dwelling civet, now it is a human right without which we are debased.
Continue reading "Would you like a McCivet poo coffee with that?" »
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Jason Todd says:
Balala, “Drinkable” is a relative term. I know plenty of poeple who will drink water pulled through four week old grounds and filtered through an old sock and call it drinkable coffee. I also know people who consider coffee undrinkable unless it is made with organic milk and single origin… Read more »
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Brendan says:
We should start a class action for the money we wasted thinking Maccas would improve their coffee… Read more »
It may sound like a risqué sexual manoeuvre, but in fact it’s a burger - KFC have decided to rid a chicken burger of its cumbersome bun – instead of those pesky empty bread calories you now get fried chicken. It’s called the Double Down.
It’s two slabs of fried chicken spooning strips of juicy bacon, cheese, and it’s got almost 2000 kilojoules. Mmmm… kilojoules.
Cue the righteous disgust from health professionals.
Continue reading "Hold the KFC burger and pass the fried haloumi" »
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Daniel says:
5 MANTIMES IN 1 SITTING full coverage and review here - the followup to my review of the burger below in this thread! http://www.domenicromeo.com/2011/04/throwing-down-mantime-gauntlet.html Read more »
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Louise says:
Caesar salad ISN’T healthy?!? You don’t say! Read more »
We like to think of ourselves as a nation of animal lovers.
We bay for blood when a woman throws a cat in a bin in the UK, or a team of huskies is massacred in Canada, and are brought to tears when a Queensland hero risks his life in the floods to save a kangaroo from drowning.
Yet every single day there are stories in the shadows we miss.
Continue reading "We can all love animals without being weird about it" »
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Janette says:
Here’s a thought to help cattle farmers still make a living if they ban live export, for people who like to eat meat, to buy their own cow or lamb and slaughter it when the need arises that way it will keep a lot of individuals happy. But I wonder… Read more »
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Claudia says:
This is awesome Read more »
The Soviet Union opened their first McDonalds in Moscow on this day in 1990.
Welcome to Monday at The Punch. What’s on your mind? Share it here.
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Edward James says:
Stephen the acronym LMAO laugh my ass off. Would be used by Roozendaal should he succeed in getting reelected as he will then get a full pension indexed for life. Apologies for those who have had enough of politics but the stench from our Parliament is all pervasive. And very… Read more »
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stephen says:
What’s LMAO mean ? Read more »
Hi. Sorry I’m late. Just back from the McCafe. Been hanging out there since really early this morning because, as Oprah’s American audience learned yesterday in a McDonald’s-sponsored segment, that’s what we Aussies do. All the time.
Lucky she reminded me about these “hip hangouts” really. There I was, about to buy a rack of spring lamb for dinner, and a beautiful fresh tray of Bowen mangoes for the fruit bowl, when bing! I remembered that in fact, what I actually craved, on a deeply-ingrained cultural level, was in fact that most Australian of treats, the American Choc Brownie Slice ™.
Or I don’t know, maybe some Cookies and Cream Cheesecake washed down with a caramel latte frappe, a beverage which demonstrates beyond question our love of a classic, untainted, good quality cup of real coffee.
Continue reading "G’day from the McCafe…. Have a nice day!" »
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Kathine Grant says:
You know this could have been an interesting comment if only you had left out the personal and spiteful bits. Read more »
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Mike says:
I dunno Antony. The Caramel Latte Frappes are pretty bloody amazing! Read more »
With the majority of middle-aged Australians either obese or overweight the direct contribution of their excess fat to poor health outcomes is potentially staggering.
Over the next 20 years it is likely that overweight and obese Australians will experience 700,000 more hospitalisations and 120,000 more deaths related to weight-related diabetes and cardiovascular disease (including heart attacks and strokes) compared to the same population who remain healthy and slim.
The calculated cost to society in terms of health care alone is $6 billion. The cost of losing loved ones and productive members of our society is probably incalculable.
Continue reading "Building healthier bodies can start with healthier towns" »
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Trevil Knieval says:
When I lived in Cronulla, I used to ride my bike to Port Botany 2 or 3 times a week. It was great. Then they put in the m5 tunnel on\off ramps at the airport tunnel and made the tunnel impossibly dangerous to use (I did it twice and almost… Read more »
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Ducks says:
Sport, one of the great Aussie past-times, should be subsidised. To play team sports in the cities is often prohibitively expensive. To play hockey in Perth for example is approximately $30 per game, assuming you play every game. A number of people in our club, predominantly students were forced to… Read more »
Everyone’s favourite chicken shop (for anyone born after 1992, KFC stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken) has, very surprisingly, branched out into smoothie production.
Obviously, there was a gap in the smoothie market and fried chicken, hot chips and a banana smoothie, or “krusher,” a KFC coined term, really is a winning combo.
Lick it, bite it, taste it, suck it, the hot guys and girls from the sleek TV adverts licking the “real bitz,” off their hands and fingers encourage us to buy, buy, buy.
Continue reading "Krushing independent purchasing decisions" »
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Tyler says:
Another marketing student that thinks the right attitude is the most negative one. You win no points for originality – you are just another self indulgent social commentator that thinks slagging off wealthy and successful corporations means you are alternative and fantastic. Let me guess ... you buy free trade… Read more »
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Eric says:
The headline of this article is very stupid. People are not mindless automatons controlled by advertising. If they were, you would be one too. Try to think a bit. Read more »
A Parliamentary committee looking at obesity has recommended, among other things, Government-funded stomach stapling operations and a national fat register.
In all there’s 19 recommendations, including the obligatory education campaigns, further discussion of tax incentives, and better regulation of the weight loss industry. But much of it is small arms in the face of this marching army.
Take a 360 degree spin around this intersection in on the southern outskirts of Sydney to see what health authorities are really up against.
Continue reading "The epicentres of Australia’s obesity epidemic" »
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PW says:
You can eat KFC, Maccas and Hungry Jacks every meal. If you do enough exercise you won’t get fat. Trouble is, most don’t. The main culprit in the obesity crisis is not Maccas or Hungry Jacks, it is our good friend the Car. The cyclists shown here may live long… Read more »
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thatmosis says:
Obesity is fast becoming the new Smoking. How long before people who are obese are forced to pay extra to sit on a plane, train or automobile or even in a cafe. They will become the unclean of the 21st century, vilified as smokers have been and rejected from polite… Read more »
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