1. McDonald’s
The Circuit of Culture
COMU3005 Research Presentation
Nguyen Thu Trang
s42683999

2. Identity of McDonald’s
 One of the most internationally recognized and
controversial icons of America popular culture
 1998: 24,500 restaurants in 114 countries, a new
opening every 5hrs, 38 million customers are
served per day, 20 million of them in US
 Prefix ―Mc-‖ has been used informally in English to
describe any person or situation whose essential
qualities are in terms of homogenization,
predictability or banality. (Galley, Briavel, 321)
 Appeared and play symbolic roles in many US TV
programs and movies as a first-came-in-mind
image of America. (Ritzer, 6-7)
 Hundreds of letter poured into McDonald‘s
headquarters when plans were made to raze Ray
Kroc‘s first McDonald‘s restaurant, including:
 Please don‘t tear it down!... Your company‘s
name is a household word, not only in the United
States of America, but all over the world. To
destroy this major artifact of contemporary culture
would, indeed, destroy part of the faith the people
of the world have in your company.
 The restaurant was then rebuilt according to the
original blueprints and turned into a museum.
 ―McDonald‘s…is really a part of Americana‖.
The first McDonald's restaurant
(Ritzer, 7) in San Bernardino, California,
1955.

3. McDonald’s Production
McDonaldization
McDonald brothers‘ concept (1948): emphasis on efficiency, low prices,  4 success elements as Ritzer (2010) suggested: efficiency –
big volume, speedy self-service and jettisoning of anything would slow calculability – predictability - control
down the transaction such as carhops, plates, forks, knives, glassware,
dishwashers, tipping and less menu items.  ―…workers in McDonaldized systems function efficciently. They
are trained to work this way by managers, who watch over
Ray Kroc‘s strategy (1955): Ray Kroc did not invent McDonald‘s but he them closely to make sure they do. Organizational rules and
transformed and developed it into a leading institutions that has regulations also help ensure highly efficient work‖
revolutionized the food service industry and altered traditional eating
habits throughout the world
 Offer calculability – ‗bigger is better‘ (Big Mac, Large Fries,
Quarter Powder) – quantity has become equivalent to quality
 Cleanliness, friendly service, and predictability –
hallmark.  Workers also tend to emphasize the quantitative rather than
qualitative aspects of their work => expected to do a lot of
work, very quickly for low pay
 Called for a heavy investment and advertising and
public relations. (Galley, Briavel ed, al., 321)  Products and workers are predictable in tastes and their words.
 Control: customers are likely ―forced‖ to eat fast and leave or
 ―In business for yourself, but not by yourself‖: even leave before they eat (drive-in model), workers are
McDonald‘s – franchisees – suppliers are all invited trained and controlled to work to a high degrees
into the worldwide system => enlarge the
production system and also product innovation
(The Ray Kroc‘s Story)
“If I had a brick for
every time I’ve repeated the
phrase Quality, Service,
Cleanliness and Value, I think
I’d probably be able to
bridge the Atlantic Ocean
with them.” – Ray Kroc (1902-
1984)

4. McDonald’s Culture Space
Consumption
For most customers outside the United States,
McDonald's offers an altered cultural and social
experience that starts when the threshold is crossed.
Consumers have used the space for different purposes
from culinary:
 "East Asian consumers have quietly, and in some
cases stubbornly, transformed their neighborhood
McDonald's restaurant into local institutions….‖
 Beijing, Seoul and Taipei,Singapore… treated (it)
as leisure centers, where people can retreat from
the stresses of urban life, students often sit in
McDonald's for hours—studying, gossiping, and
picking over snacks…
 Sanctuaries for women who wish to escape male-
dominated settings
 France: afternoon meeting places for elderly
women who enjoy chatting while drinking a
coffee and eating an apple pie => fast-food no
longer needs to be fast in eating]
(Galley, Briavel et. al., 323)
McDonald @ Singapore Changi Airport case could be a
―con‖ in the transformation of McDonald‘s into a culture
space when students consume too much spaces which
are primarily preserved for tourists for study. Source: reclaimland.sg

5. McDonald’s Culture Space
Regulation
As a consequence, McDonald‘s has twisted itself into the local culture: ―local cultures and identities have constrained
McDonald's to adapt to place and reveal local idiosyncrasies‖
How McDonald‘s regulated Culture diversity:
 Spaces:  Products:
 provision beer with meal and large  Teriyaki McBurger in Japan,
smoking sections in Belgium, France
and Germany  McLacks in Norway, Kiwi Burgers in
NZ,
 comfortable, individual chairs and real
plants had to replace the original fixed  No beef ingredients in Indian
chairs and plastic foliage. McDonald, there was curry sauce
and flavor instead;
 Some McDonald's restaurants in
Europe supply free daily newspapers at  Rice burgers in Japan and Taiwan
breakfast-time and dress their tables stores,
with cotton tablecloths and small vases  Red Bean pie in HongKong…
of dried flowers.
(Galley, Briavel, ed. al. 323)
 Free wifi and air-conditioned space
 Party room and party packages for
event celebrations
Source: internet

6. McDonald’s Culture Space
Design
 The symbolic Golden Arches in Architect
has always been significant
 But even McDonald‘s interior design also
blends itself into local style, varies
depending on the city, designed to
conform to the local architecture
 Design quality compensates for the lack of
space and higher densities of European
McDonald's restaurants. (Galley, Briavel et.
al. 323)
Art Déco in Paris
Art Nouveau in Brussels
Modernism in Barcelona McCafe

7. McDonald’s
the Taste of Boredom
An interesting argument by Finkelstein J. (2003):
 She has argued that the industrialization in food industries, of
which McDonald‘s is an significant evidence and example:
 has created the circumstances in which the opportunities for
being innovative and playful with food are being reduced
 has changed many foods into less interesting objects that in
some senses become impregnable, closed products (190)
=> industrial food has killed our anxieties about food, playful
engagement individual can have with food (198)
 She also presented the way McDonaldization has affected
eating habits in Australian and they way it stole the majority in
cooking at home and passed it to the dining-out sector.
 But then, the stronger McDonald grows, the more bland and
boring it gets because of being standardized, neologized
brand name, unwelcome trivialization and debasement
brought about by rationalization, and their food has been
somehow boring in taste, too. (198)

8. Reference
Primary Secondary
 Galley, Catherine C., and Briavel  Du Gay, Paul, et al. Doing
Holcomb. "McDonald's." St. James cultural studies: the story of the
Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed.
Sara Pendergast and Tom Sony Walkman. London:
Pendergast. Vol. 3. Detroit: St. James Thousand Oaks, 1997. Print.
Press, 2000. 321-324. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Web. 23 May 2012.  Finkelstein J., ―The Taste of
Boredom: McDonaldization
 ―McDonald‘s History‖ and Australian Food Culture‖,
AboutMcDonalds.com, n.d. Web. 25
American Behavioral Scientist.
May 2012.
Vol. 42 No.2. Sage Publication,
 ―The Ray Kroc Story‖ McDonalds.com, October 2003. 187-200. Web.
n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. 23 May 2012.
 ―Reclaiming Changi Airport‖. Reclaim  Ritzer G., The McDonaldization
Land The Fight For Space In of Society 6, Fine Forge Press,
Singapore, 21 Jul 2010. Web. 23 May 2010. Print.
2012.
Thank you!