“What would happen if I ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days straight? Would I suddenly be on the fast track to becoming an obese American? Would it be unreasonably dangerous?” Spurlock asks in the documentary. “Let’s find out. I’m ready. Super size me!”
He would gain nearly 25 pounds, see his cholesterol jump, and suffer from mood swings and depression.
The mood at McDonald’s probably wasn’t much better at the time. Even before the film was released in May 2004, the burger giant appeared to be squirming in its special sauce.
In March 2004, two months before the American public had seen a single frame of “Super Size Me,” McDonald’s announced it had begun phasing out the “super size” option. Was the chain anticipating a public backlash? Maybe.
Perhaps more telling was the introduction of McDonald’s “Go Active!” Happy Meal, a boxed meal complete with an image of young woman in workout clothes, stretching her right leg. Described at the time as an “adult Happy Meal,” the “Go Active!” box included a salad, bottled water, a pedometer, and some advice on walking more. It was part of a coordinated campaign to make McDonald’s food more appealing to health-conscious diners.
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The nationwide rollout of the “Go Active!” Happy Meal was May 6, according to contemporary reports. This was, incidentally, just one day before “Super Size Me” appeared in movie theaters.
McDonald’s indicated the menu changes and additions were “in response to a call by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this year for the private sector to help fight obesity,” according to an Associated Press story at the time.
There was no mention in the AP story of an upcoming indie film that would eventually gross $22 million and earn an Academy Award nomination for best documentary.
You could reasonably argue that McDonald’s was just responding to the cultural zeitgeist of the early aughts, when many were lobbying for a healthier American diet. I mean, no company the size of McDonald’s can make menu changes without a lot of preparation: It can take many months to coordinate supply chains, order new packaging materials and create marketing plans.
Then again, making a movie takes time, too. Spurlock had filmed his adventures in fast-food gluttony more than a year before the documentary actually dropped. Does anyone think McDonald’s was unaware of the film’s production and its potential impact on sales?
McDonald’s even issued a press release shortly after the debut of “Super Size Me.” Some of the pertinent sections have been preserved online by folks who study the cultural impact of film. This one paragraph stood out:
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“This movie is all about one individual’s decision to act irresponsibly by consuming more than 5,000 calories a day — twice the recommended level for adult males — and by purposely limiting his physical activity. That’s why this movie makes no contribution to the important dialogue taking place today on nutrition and balanced lifestyles.”
The company is making a perfectly legitimate point, one echoed by others at the time. (Spurlock also acknowledged later, in a #MeToo mea culpa, that he hadn’t been sober for more than a week for 30 years, casting doubt on how much alcohol contributed to his health issues in 2003.) But let’s be realistic here, too: McDonald’s was attacking the messenger, the hallmark of any institution under siege.
And let’s not forget: Even in 2004, few people needed a documentary to know that they could encounter excess at McDonald’s. A Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese combo meal, with medium fries and a co*ke, clocks in at 1260 calories, with more saturated fat in one meal than is recommended for an entire day.
McDonald’s would take another swing at Spurlock and his documentary ahead of the film’s release in Britain later in 2004. The company launched an “unconventional campaign” with national newspaper advertisem*nts that came across as an attack on McDonald’s itself, according to a piece in the Guardian from August 2004.
“What may surprise you is how much of the film we agree with,” the ad says, according to the Guardian. “We do agree with … its core argument, that if you eat too much and do too little, it’s bad for you.” The ad went on to note that it would take the average Mickey D’s customer six years to eat the amount that Spurlock wolfed down in 30 days.
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In the two decades since “Super Size Me” hit theaters, the fortunes of the filmmaker and McDonald’s have gone in opposite directions. After his admission of sexual misconduct, Spurlock described himself as part of the #MeToo problem and resigned from his production company, Warrior Poets.
McDonald’s, meanwhile, continues unabated. Its sales are up. So is its stock price, at least relative to its value in 2004. Reported the New York Times this month: “The stock price of McDonald’s hit an all-time high in January, and has gone up nearly 1,000 percent since ‘Super Size Me’ came out — nearly twice the return of the S&P 500.”
You know what else is up? American obesity rates.
I don’t know what this says about America. Maybe that storytelling, in the end, is no match for the salt, sugar, fat, and marketing prowess of McDonald’s.
