Maccas is introducing kale to their menu
Are 3am Maccas runs to get your deep-fried, MSG fix to become a thing of the past? Will our history books tell the tales of a generation that didn’t know which boutique farmer our wagyu patty was sourced from? Is our greatest guilty-pleasure fast food becoming trendy?
McDonalds seems to be having an identity crisis that’s probably for the better. The oligarchical fast food chain has faced some of the biggest lawsuits, controversies, and changes in the past couple of decades and is working its buns off to revamp its image. Could kale be the answer to the Maccas problem?
In its latest attempt to try to get in with the cool crowd (or any crowd, really) amid their eighth consecutive month of drops in sales worldwide, the golden arches are looking into a fresh angle to win back some of its fans. McDonald’s new CEO, Stephen Easterbrook is putting emphasis on their latest approach, that Maccas is no longer just a place to host your kid’s 5th birthday, but actually a “modern, progressive burger company” that can produce some high quality eats.
In a world where increasingly many don’t want none unless you got gluten-free buns, hun, the surge in healthy competition has hit Micky D’s hard. So their analysts have decided that the best course of action is to jump on the bandwagon. Despite their recent foodie-hating ad that states their lettuce “will never be kale”, the marketing department are now eating their words as the new direction may introduce everything the ad set out to mock: food wankery.
As consumers are becoming more educated about the food manufacturing process (this week McDonald’s banned human antibiotics being used in their chicken) and more health conscious, this change in tack may see a domino effect in many of our favourite food outlets. Maybe fast food will become extinct as an era of scientifically-approved, nutrient-rich, sustainable food starts moving in. Maybe the amalgamation of fast and slow food is where our society is heading, to create ‘flow’ food (or alternatively ‘slast’, but that just sounds dumb (and gross)).
Maybe it just takes a bit of clean eating to get people lovin’ it.
Words by Simon Toppin