In a long report on how McDonald’s is seeking to boost its image, Keith O’Brien describes the new “McDonald’s Channel,” which will one day play in its franchises:
The content on the nascent channel is breezy (think Top 10 lists) and anodyne. The objective is “an agnostic view of the world,” according to Lee Edmondson, the founder of ChannelPort Communications, the California company building the channel for McDonald’s (its only client). In the test markets, at least, this means there will be no jarring images from CNN or Fox News. Instead, every few minutes between short features, the company’s catchy jingle — ba-da-ba-ba-bah — serenades the dining room as a reminder that all is right and good.
The next time you’re inclined to dismiss observations about how global capitalism is at odds with traditional belief and social practices, recall this anecdote (remember as well that real agnosticism is something far more serious than what Lee Edmondson has in mind). The company that begins by seeking to serve all does not simply ignore the particularities of its customers, it actually fears them. The existential commitment involved in religious belief and political solidarity interferes with our role as consumers, and so agnosticism—or at least a very loose and low conception of it– becomes the one true corporate faith.
None of this, probably, will change whether or not one goes to McDonald’s (I do sometimes, for reasons of convenience and economy), but I’d rather get affordable food without the side order of religious and political indifferentism.
May 17th, 2012 | 4:09 pm
I don’t disagree, but I’ll take my “food” without the side of news video of a house set afire by a vengeful husband in which the wife and children are presumably burning to death as the video was being taken. That sickening image welcomed me one day in the Qdoba chain.
May 17th, 2012 | 5:23 pm
Why are TVs all over the place anyway? Why are they in restaurants at all, even fast-food places?
May 18th, 2012 | 12:50 am
If they’re going to play that theme song while you eat, I might avoid the place.
I don’t like TVs at all in any room labeled a “dining room” – whether that means my own home, a fast-food restaurant or a restaurant proper, isn’t the whole point of a dining room supposed to be that it’s a place where people can sit down and eat together in a hopefully pleasant atmosphere?
I actually did stop going to one favorite Italian place after a particular excruciating harangue from a particular news program. We all tried so hard not to pay attention (because my family believes news and editorial should stay separated, we don’t tend to watch any TV news, and tend to spend a lot of time aggravated at all the news media – left and right both). How can anyone eat while someone is going on about how evil half of America is? Even if it’s the half you don’t agree with?
May 18th, 2012 | 9:30 am
[...] Almost solipsism. Let’s see, what might “agnostic about the existence of the world” mean? Solipsism would be the akin to “atheism over existence” what then is agnosticism? [...]
May 18th, 2012 | 10:12 am
Not exactly on point, but: TVs are everywhere. Waiting in my doctor’s office, I was forced to listen to a feature on the sex lives of the elderly. A chirpy young woman interviewing an 80 year old couple who were pleased as punch that they were still going at it. Also, restaurants playing loud, crappy rock music in their “dining room”, you know, the large room where their customers are trying to “dine”? It’s hard to escape the vulgarity.
May 18th, 2012 | 2:50 pm
While “agnostic view of the world” might be a statement of McDonald’s theology reading the article at the NYT site makes me think otherwise. The point seems to be to offer a tv channel that is, well, simply innocuous. So there won’t be any jarring images from the various cable news networks. We can debate whether or not having tv’s in McDonald’s is good for business. But at least based on the NYT I think it is likely a stretch to suggest that McDonald’s is serving up “religious and political” indifference.
May 19th, 2012 | 6:38 am
I regard eating in McDonald’s a spiritually elevating experience The food they serve could never tempt one to give to pleasure what should only be treated as a bodily necessity.
Now, the very aroma wafting from Maxim’s or Le Fouquet’s could be considered by the devout a dangerous occasion of (hopefully venial) sin
May 28th, 2012 | 1:00 pm
[...] From First Things: In a long report on how McDonald’s is seeking to boost its image, Keith O’Brien describes the new “McDonald’s Channel,” which will one day play in its franchises: The content on the nascent channel is breezy (think Top 10 lists) and anodyne. The objective is “an agnostic view of the world,” according to Lee Edmondson, the founder of ChannelPort Communications, the California company building the channel for McDonald’s (its only client). In the test markets, at least, this means there will be no jarring images from CNN or Fox News. Instead, every few minutes between short features, the company’s catchy jingle — ba-da-ba-ba-bah — serenades the dining room as a reminder that all is right and good. [...]
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