McWorld

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McWorld is a term sometimes used to describe the spreading of McDonald's restaurants throughout the world as the result of globalization, and more generally to describe the effects of international McDonaldization of services and commercialization of goods and services as an element of globalization as a whole. Like "McJob," this term naturally is not currently favored by McDonald's Corporation.

Critics claim that fast food chain restaurants such as McDonald's are destructive towards many aspects of the indigenous cultures in countries where they have been introduced. McDonald's itself, however, does make some effort to preserve indigenous culture; for example, McDonald's restaurants in India serve no beef and include "quick-service" versions of traditional Indian vegetarian foods. Although critics note that many fast food restaurant menus include high-calorie and/or high-fat items, McDonalds has however attempted to lose the unhealthy image by introducing new menus such as the "Salads Plus" menu, and new items such as sandwiches.

In 1996, Rutgers political science professor Benjamin Barber published a bestselling book titled Jihad vs. McWorld ^[1], which describes international commercialization as one of two great clashing forces of the 21st century, the other being tribalistic religious fundamentalism. A 1999 book entitled Mustard Seed Versus McWorld by evangelical minister Tom Sine implores Christians to reject the diminution of religious values that he contends results from excessive commercialization.^[2]

[edit] Origins

McWorld was originally the name of a TV campaign for the restaurant by Leo Burnett that ran many of its ads during Saturday morning cartoons of the early '90s, featuring the exciting McDonald's-related happenings that would purportedly occur if kids ran the world. ^[3] These included fantasies such as having gym class every period in school and eating McDonald's at every meal. In addition to planet Earth, McWorld ads featured kids ruling school, space, and other arenas typically dominated by an adult hegemony; adults were portrayed as inferior and ineffective. Memorably, each spot concluded with the phrase, "Hey, it could happen! MCWORLD!", as a rockin' guitar chord played in the background. One such spot won a Golden Marble Award in 1998. ^[4]

The term was also a planet visited by the cast of the flash cartoon Bonus Stage parodying the globalization (or rather galaxy-wide spreading) of McDonalds.