Has anyone here read Fast Food Nation?

I’m sure it’s been mentioned in “books” threads, but it would take too long to do a search. All I’m saying is, I’m reading it and it is knocking me sideways. I just finished chapter 2, which is mostly about advertising and sales.

Among the things that are making me whisper, “That’s disgusting!” as I read on: A school district in Colorado had a contract with Coca-Cola. In exchange for money for enough books on enough desks, the school was obligated to move 27,000 cases of CC products, or “face reduced payments.” Well, they only moved 21,000 cases, so they were urged to let kids bring Coke products into the classroom, and move the vending machines to where they would be accessible all day. It’s not hard enough to teach kids; they have to be jacked up on caffeine.

The Montgomery Burns of the advertising agency that negotiated this contract brags that in another school district in Kansas City, he brought the per-student allowance up from 67 cents to $27. I don’t know which is worse: taxes giving a school district 67 cents a kid (if that part is true), or school funds being held hostage by a soft-drink company.

Anyway, read it, or please discuss it with me if you already have. My cow-orkers are politely listening to me read passages, but they have their own stuff to do.

[hijacking my own thread]My high school dismissed the idea of selling soft drinks, whether from a machine or a cooler, on the theory that an aluminum can could be transformed into a weapon, and a vending machine was vandalism waiting to happen. Maybe that’s the key: if a school is already corrupt, it’s unappealing to corporate vultures.[/hijacking my own thread]

Thanks for the info, Rilchiam; I’ve been wanting to read it but was waiting for it to come out in paperback. Maybe I’ll just stop being a cheapskate and shell out for the hardcover. Worth it, you think?

Read No Logo by Naomi Klein, it has a good section on advertising in schools.

-fh

I really enjoyed Fast Food Nation. My dad, who’s a food research scientist, reckons that the section on chemical taste manufacturing is one of the best he’s read from someone outside the industry.

I didn’t think much of No Logo, mind. Klein seemed to suffer from the “why use one word/example when ten will do” syndrome, and regularly seemed to slip into a default anti-capitalist mode. I think she made a lot of very disturbing points, but her obvious allegiances made me wary; even when the points are unarguable I like at least a semblance of objectivity.

I’d say so, Woodstock. They’ll probably delay the paperback release as long as possible anyway, since the hardcover is still flying off the shelves.

Uh, is Naomi Klein related to Calvin Klein? If so, why?*

*As in, why would she write a book called No Logo about the evils of what Calvin Klein does?

(Yes, the second sentence was gratuitous. But funny. :D)

It’s been out in paperback in the UK for a while now. Since the author’s American I’d be surprised if it isn’t out in paperback soon for you.