Supersize Me

Whilst I was down in Camden I thought I'd get out of the rain and go and see "Supersize Me". I'm sure there's no need to explain the film; every media outlet is currently reporting on it at the moment.

The film puts together a strong case for not believing everything McDs tell you about how good their food is, and is extremely educational and insightful. If I was Health Minister I'd ensure this documentary was shown to every school kid in the country. In fact I'd do my utmost to have it shown on prime time TV.

Whereas Fahrenheit 411 was excessively schmaltzy and a questionable view of it's clearly biased director, this was much more factual and there was a smaller argument for saying that the report was manipulated and one-sided. I mean how much clearer can you get than showing how much the size of the portions have changed over time than putting the cups alongside each other (a normal cup a few years ago is now a kid's size etc.). The only bit which I think is open to question is the experiment with the kids recognising pictures of famous people, naming Ronald McDonald but not Jesus. If you edit the footage to only show the "don't know" responses you can easily add weight to your argument.

Another interesting thing to note is that McDonalds have paid to show a commerical before the film which advertises a website saying what aspects of the film they agree and disagree. Given the impact this film had in the States, where they no longer sell super size portions, I doubt many people will be interested in seeing their argument. They've already lost!

For the record, I ceased eating McDonalds 3 years ago after reading "Fast Food Nation", although a few weeks ago I did have a Quorn Burger, but only because I was drunk and hungry at 2 in the morning following the Comedy Club on Thursday night. Yes, I agree I must have been drunk to have ordered the Quorn Burger of all things.