|
|
Post by slashpop on May 14, 2020 15:48:55 GMT 10
I remember 80s to early 2000s fast food didn't have this bad reputation that it does now. The most common explanation is more health awareness and better choices but I really think documentaries like super size me, and popular viewpoints in the mid 2000s demonized it for better or worse.
At the very least I think it was part of out childhoods; happy meal toys, eating out, and birthday parties etc
Eating out was a once a while thing back then, also there weren’t as many choices, so it wasn’t always seen as this evil thing.
I’m not very pro fast food myself but just reflecting on this topic.
What are your thoughts ?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
|
0 |
|
Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 16:25:49 GMT 10
By popularity I'm assuming you mean its good reputation? Because in terms of sales, fast food has only become more popular.  The Super Size Me documentary in 2004 I feel is when the backlash started. After that, fast food companies stopped advertising to children.
kev2000sfan likes this
|
|
|
|
Post by #Infinity on May 14, 2020 16:45:45 GMT 10
Around the start of the 2010s was when I remember veganism suddenly dominating people's diets, especially amongst millennials. I had never heard the term in the 2000s, but all throughout the 2010s I felt like a weirdo just because I still went to my favorite Mexican chain all the time.
kev2000sfan likes this
|
|
|
|
Post by broadstreet223 on May 15, 2020 0:43:41 GMT 10
It never did
kev2000sfan likes this
|
|
|
|
Post by slashpop on May 15, 2020 5:42:09 GMT 10
By popularity I'm assuming you mean its good reputation? Because in terms of sales, fast food has only become more popular. The Super Size Me documentary in 2004 I feel is when the backlash started. After that, fast food companies stopped advertising to children. Yeah should have worded it a bit better, I implied a move away from typical fast food towards a more refined varieties of it. Here’s some info you guys can check out, sure there are many more similar ones like this, it just gives you a better sense: www.forbes.com/sites/barbarathau/2014/09/11/survey-says-americans-are-losing-their-appetite-for-mcdonalds-taco-bell-and-burger-king/amp/I can’t imagine the 80/90s even the early 2000s without Pizza Hut/Pizza Pizza, Pepsi and McDonalds. It seems they were part of the fabric of those eras in a way and tied to pop culture in an closer way. Not sure if kids these days really love mcdonalds in the same way, since they have better options and food quality and variety is much greater.
|
|
|
|
Post by fusefan on May 15, 2020 9:29:58 GMT 10
I’m with Slowpoke. Super Size Me had something to do with it. And I remember there were many childhood obesity news stories during the mid 2000s.
kev2000sfan likes this
|
|
|
|
Post by Telso on May 15, 2020 12:42:20 GMT 10
I don't remember ever hearing about fast food getting less popular. Even with alternative diets soaring in the 2010s, there was still tons of obsession around secret menu items, combos and challenges around fast food chains thanks to the internet.
And now with the corona crisis, fast food will definitely not loose any popularity anytime soon due to drive-ins and how cheap the food is.
|
|
|
|
Post by jaydawg89 on May 15, 2020 17:03:27 GMT 10
I don't think it ever lost popularity. However, I do believe that its reputation has become a lot worse throughout the years. I would say the mid 2000s is when fast food truly developed the bad reputation it has today.
|
|
|
|
Post by smartboi on May 15, 2020 17:54:06 GMT 10
Anyone else remember the "pink slime" pictures that came from a food processing plant or something? It managed to become a meme for like a week before being forgotten. 
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
|
0 |
|
Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 20:51:19 GMT 10
I don't remember ever hearing about fast food getting less popular. Even with alternative diets soaring in the 2010s, there was still tons of obsession around secret menu items, combos and challenges around fast food chains thanks to the internet. And now with the corona crisis, fast food will definitely not loose any popularity anytime soon due to drive-ins and how cheap the food is. I think Slashpop went with the original Latin definition of popular, as in being liked by the populace. Think "unpopular leader", it doesn't mean that nobody has heard of said leader, but that the leader has a bad reputation. In the 70s to 90s it was very common to have kids be the prime target audience of fast food. Ronald McDonald and his friends were household names unlike today. McDonald's franchises used to have entire arcades and N64s for kids to play on. The Burger King kids club was a lot of fun, I don't think it exists anymore, and I believe Pizza Hut also had something similar. Super Size Me was the beginning of the end for that era. I remember a lot of European countries banned fast food companies advertising to children after that, and in North America McDonald's and Burger King child centric advertising voluntarily. I remember the Biggest Loser also started airing in 2004. There was a slew of other obesity-centred reality shows that started around the time and gastric bypass surgery competed with boob jobs for tabloid cosmetic surgery news. Now that I think about it. The mid-2000s were a mini food revolution in many ways. Wasn't 2003/4 also around the time everyone and their mom was on the Atkins diet and became allergic to carbs? You had that GMO scare and everyone buying organic back in 2006. All the stuff about hormones in cow milk making girls start puberty at 8 and turning boys gay was also a big scare. I think the one two three punch of avian flu, swine flu and Mad Cow Disease scared a lot of people from meat and was the precursor to veganism.
|
|
|
|
Post by slashpop on May 16, 2020 4:57:05 GMT 10
I don't remember ever hearing about fast food getting less popular. Even with alternative diets soaring in the 2010s, there was still tons of obsession around secret menu items, combos and challenges around fast food chains thanks to the internet. And now with the corona crisis, fast food will definitely not loose any popularity anytime soon due to drive-ins and how cheap the food is. I think Slashpop went with the original Latin definition of popular, as in being liked by the populace. Think "unpopular leader", it doesn't mean that nobody has heard of said leader, but that the leader has a bad reputation. In the 70s to 90s it was very common to have kids be the prime target audience of fast food. Ronald McDonald and his friends were household names unlike today. McDonald's franchises used to have entire arcades and N64s for kids to play on. The Burger King kids club was a lot of fun, I don't think it exists anymore, and I believe Pizza Hut also had something similar. Super Size Me was the beginning of the end for that era. I remember a lot of European countries banned fast food companies advertising to children after that, and in North America McDonald's and Burger King child centric advertising voluntarily. I remember the Biggest Loser also started airing in 2004. There was a slew of other obesity-centred reality shows that started around the time and gastric bypass surgery competed with boob jobs for tabloid cosmetic surgery news. Now that I think about it. The mid-2000s were a mini food revolution in many ways. Wasn't 2003/4 also around the time everyone and their mom was on the Atkins diet and became allergic to carbs? You had that GMO scare and everyone buying organic back in 2006. All the stuff about hormones in cow milk making girls start puberty at 8 and turning boys gay was also a big scare. I think the one two three punch of avian flu, swine flu and Mad Cow Disease scared a lot of people from meat and was the precursor to veganism. Those are some interesting points about the mid 2000s shift towards healthier eating. 2001-2003 didn't feel like we had any noticeable trends. I don't know if it was the same in the US since I was older when I moved, but for some reason my public school in the 90s in Toronto would give us McDonalds once a week as part of the regular lunch plan. I think even pizza pizza but I can't remember. Was it the same at your school? I can't imagine the 80s/90s and early 2000s without the contests, and fads that surrounded all this. I remember for while there always massive coke/pepsi/fast food contests or offers that people took very seriously and sometimes it was tied to a movie or something really popular often times involving collecting the caps or something else. This was also similar in other kinds of food. You also had pizza hut coupons from ninja turtles games and toys and super collectable disney, star wars, simpsons and pokemon items from fast food chains in the 90s/ early 2000s. There were also 7up, mcdonalds (a number of them), chex, cheetos and dominos video games. Avoid the noid being this iconic 80s and early 90s character was really popular as well. Again I'm sure some type of contests exist today and I've seen very creative social media campaigns with the same brands and while they are obviously popular, I just don't they feel they interact with popular culture/kid culture in the same way.       
|
|
|
|
Post by mc98 on May 16, 2020 5:01:16 GMT 10
I don't remember ever hearing about fast food getting less popular. Even with alternative diets soaring in the 2010s, there was still tons of obsession around secret menu items, combos and challenges around fast food chains thanks to the internet. And now with the corona crisis, fast food will definitely not loose any popularity anytime soon due to drive-ins and how cheap the food is. Also, there is a huge Mukbang/ASMR food trend on YouTube where it involves these fast food products.
|
|
