How can Graphic Design challenge McDonaldization?
McDonaldization is a term coined by
American sociologist George Ritzer. In his text ‘The McDonaldization of
Society’ Ritzer discusses his theory of globalization in which he states that
our modern day culture possesses many of the characteristics of the fast-food
chain McDonalds.
In his text, Ritzer highlights four key
aspects of McDonaldization; efficiency, calculability, predictability and
control which can be applied to many sectors of our society. This seemingly
‘western way of life’ has not only dominated America but has also spread across
the globe.
The main aim of this essay is to discuss
how Graphic Design can begin to challenge some of issues that could arise a
result of the process of McDonaldization by defining and applying the four key
aspects highlighted by Ritzer to examples from the Graphic Design industry and
discussing how Graphic Designers can avoid and challenge McDonaldization in
their work.
The predictability aspect of McDonaldization
refers to how the production process is organized in order to guarantee
’uniformity’ within the products so the consumer will receive the same service
and product no matter where they go.
This theory of predictability could also
refer to the predictable nature of the repetitive tasks performed by the
employees of McDonalized corporations.
For example, in terms of the fast food
chain McDonalds predictability not only refers to the range of products
available at each branch, which is always the same but the same taste and
experience which occurs at each branch of McDonalds.
“McDonald’s “golden arches” evoke a sense
of predictability: “Replicated color and symbol, mile after mile, city after
city, act as a tacit promise of predictability and stability between McDonald’s”
(Ritzer, 1993, p.89)
Ritzer describes the predictability of
McDonald’s as if it’s almost a promise to it’s customers that despite their
restaurants being in several continents across the globe, the McDonald’s
‘arches’ is a symbol which guarantees that their experience and product will
always be the same whichever branch they visit, which was the personal goal of
founder Ray Kroc.
“My whole idea depended on carrying out the
McDonald’s standard of taste and quality in hundreds of stores”
(Kroc, 1987, p. 77)
Kroc strove for this idea of predictability
and uniformity within his products, which he believed would be imperative to
the success to the fast food chain. Which is something Eric Schlosser
reinforces in his text ‘Fast Food Nation, What the All American Meal is Doing
to the World’.
“The key to a successful franchise,
according to many texts on the subject, can be expressed in one word:
“uniformity”. Franchises and chain stores strive to offer exactly the same
product or service at numerous locations.”
(Schlosser, 2002, p. 5)
Another aspect of predictability within the
fast food chain McDonalds is the type of work that the employees of the
Corporation have to do, which have no individuality. Jobs such as these in
which the work is tedious and repetitive with little skill required and low pay
have become known as a ‘McJob’ after the fast food chain.
“Employees are seldom allowed to use
anything approaching all their skills and are not allowed to be creative on the
job”
(Ritzer, 1993, p. 134)
By stating that employees of McDonalds “are
not allowed to be creative on the job” Ritzer is emphasizing the point that
there is no individuality between the employees – much like the products
McDonalds serve – they are all the same. They are not hired for their skills or
personality but only to perform a job, which according to Ray Kroc, American
entrepreneur who built McDonalds into the multi-national corporation it is
today “anyone could do it if he followed those individual steps to the letter”.
This idea of predictability can also
be applied to the Graphic Design
industry with many businesses such as Vistaprint offering consumers
mass-produced printed and promotional material.
Vistaprint and other services that are
similar such as websites that design and build websites for consumers offer a
range of designs in the form of pre-set templates, thereby diminishing any
creativity or uniqueness about the design.
“For consumers, McDonald’s (it’s drive-through is a good example) offers
the best available way to get from being hungry to being full.”
(Ritzer, 1993, p. 13)
When discussing the idea of the McDonalds
drive through Ritzer states that it is the “best way to get from being hungry
to being full” this is not a reference to the quality of the product but in
fact the efficiency of the system, this relates directly to the idea of
Vistaprint were the product itself is not necessarily high quality design but
the process is easier for the consumer.
Although for many this aspect of
predictability is beneficial in terms of the fast food restaurant, wherever you
go no matter how exotic the place you will be able to guarantee that the
McDonalds will taste exactly the same as your local branch, in terms of Graphic
Design it can be a negative aspect.
“Nothing will destroy an enchanted
experience more easily than having it become predictable or having it recur in
the same way time after time.”
(Ritzer, 1993, p. 129)
Vistaprint, which specializes in short run
quantity orders of business cards in rapid fashion, is a specific example of
how something can be destroyed by predictability as Ritzer refers to. The
purpose of a business card is to act as a form of promotion, either for an
individual or for a business therefore it needs to be unique to the individual
or business to encourage the receiver to keep it and ultimately to use it, by
giving it’s consumers only a set number of templates for the design of their
business card, Vistaprint are producing designs which are all more or less the
same and therefore not fulfilling their purpose.
Another aspect of Graphic Design that can
relate to this idea of predictability is the tendency to, instead of creating
new and innovative designs to instead just reuse and recycle ideas and designs
that have been successful in the past.
“IKEA’s popularity stems from the fact that
it offers, at very low prices, trendy furniture based on well-known Swedish
designs.”
(Ritzer, 1993, p.17)
Similarly to concept of IKEA as described
by Ritzer, there has also been a trend by Graphic Designers to instead of
creating there own design which would be unique to instead use historically
renowned designs within their work, most of the time creating a crass reworking
of it.
For example, for the cover art of their
2005 album ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’ Glaswegian rock band Franz
Ferdinand used Rodchenko’s constructivist poster for a Moscow publisher as a
main source of inspiration, even creating their own version of the famous
photograph of Lilya Brik.
One suggestion Ritzer gives for this
tendency to take inspiration from past successful designs is that is giving the
consumer something they know and recognize.
“The studios like sequels (“Welcome to
“McMovieworld”) because the same characters, actors and basic plot lines can be
used again and again. Furthermore, sequels are more likely to succeed at the
box office than completely original movies; profits are more predictable.”
(Ritzer, 1993, p.98)
Although this concept of ‘recycling’ had
proven successful in terms of retail stores such as IKEA and within the film
industry as evidenced Ritzer, in terms of Graphic Design it is imperative that
the designer is designing ultimately for a purpose and not just churning out
the same designs over and over again.
Another aspect of McDonaldization,
calculability refers to the debate of quantity over quality. In particular, does the fact that a large
amount of a given product delivered to a customer/consumer in a short amount of
time make up for the fact that it is not of the highest quality?
Calculability directly relates to the
Americanized concept of “fast food” employed by the McDonalds corporation and
other chains. Although the food prepared from fresh ingredients in the home is
often tastier and better for you, recently there has become a preference for
the “fast-food” as it takes less time and is easier for the consumer.
In terms of the McDonalds chain
specifically, Ray Kroc strived to make each stage of the food production
process as efficient as possible, often experimenting with factors such as
packaging and storage which in turn lead to increased production and quicker
service to consumers.
“Quantity tends to become a surrogate for
quality”
(Ritzer, 1993, p. 72)
In McDonalds and other McDonaldized
corporations, Ritzer states here that this idea of producing products on a mass
scale has almost become a “surrogate” for the quality of the individual
products themselves, as long as there is a large quantity of products the
quality of those products doesn’t matter.
This directly relates to the amendments
made by Kroc on the production process of his food products, he could not
create the highest quality food products available, so therefore he created a
system that was of the highest efficiency possible.
Ironically, although the consumers of these
fast food chains such as McDonald know they will not receive a meal of high
quality when they visit their local branch, McDonalidized corporations where
the emphasis is put on the quantity and speed of service rather than the actual
quality of the product have grown significantly.
“The performance of fast-food restaurants
is also assessed quantitatively, not qualitatively.”
(Ritzer, 1993, p. 85)
One suggestion Ritzer gives for the
popularity of fast food chains is that as consumers we do not assess fast food
chains on the product they serve but rather on how much they can produce in a
short amount of time.
Although putting an emphasis on quantity
over quality of a given product and the aspect of calculability had proven
successful for McDonalds and other fast-food chains when applied to the Graphic
Design industry it is not as beneficial.
“An emphasis on producing and participating
in a large number of experiences tends to diminish the magical quality of each of
them”
(Ritzer, 1993, p. 128)
Mass produced printed material such as
flyers that are handed out in the street are a specific example of how the
quality of a design can be diminished by the sheer quantity of it.
On a daily basis, the sheer volume of advertisements
a consumer is subjected to, in the form of posters, leaflets, billboards etc.
is very high therefore when receiving a flyer on the street it tends to be
ignored or not even registered by the consumer no matter how high the standard
of the design.
Another issue with this McDonaldized theme
of ‘calculability’ in terms of Graphic Design is striving to produce a large
quantity of a design could come at the cost of the purpose of the design
itself.
“Calculability often means obtaining little
or no personal meaning from their work; therefore, the work, products and
services suffer”
(Ritzer, 1993, p.72)
In Graphic Design, this idea of obtaining
‘personal meaning’ from your work as Ritzer mentions is vital. Graphic Design
is about communicating a message to a specific audience, in order to achieve
this the designer needs a purpose and some sort of personal interest in what
they are producing otherwise it will not be a successful piece of design.
One key text that not only discusses the
damage caused to our modern day culture as a direct result of globalization and
Ritzer’s theory of McDonaldization but also explores how as individuals we can
begin to challenge these processes is Kalle Lasn’s ‘Culture Jam’.
Lasn, an Estonian-Canadian activist founded
Adbusters which is a not-for-profit, anti-consumerist organisation alongside
Bill Schamlz in Vancouver in 1989. Alongside their reader-supported,
advertising-free activist magazine which devotes itself to challenging
consumerism Adbusters have also designed and produced a range of
‘subvertisements’ which are a spoof or parody of a corporate or political
advertisement in order to raise awareness of and challenge consumerism.
In his text, one of the key criticisms Lasn
observes about the effects Globalization has had is of the same, sometimes even
numbing routine performed by the members of our society on a daily basis. This
directly relates to the predictability aspect of Mcdonaldization as discussed
by Ritzer.
“I doubt there’s more than a handful of
free, spontaneous minutes anywhere in that cycle. We ourselves have been
branded.”
(Lasn, 1999, p. XIII)
This theory by Lasn that our lives have
become ‘branded’ as a result of the endless daily routine of Mcdonaldized
activities, these activities are much like the products served within the
fast-food chain as they are the same everyday with no room for spontaneity or
irregularities.
Another observation made by Lasn is how as
a society we have started to become immune to advertisements that are fueling
Globalization due to the sheer number we see each day.
“Ultimately, everything becomes background
noise and we hear almost nothing”
(Lasn, 1999, p. 14)
Due to the nature of the McDonaldized
activities that are part of our daily routines being so repetitive and predictable,
Lasn suggests that we have come immune by referring to the activities as
“background noise” something that is an ongoing but becomes unnoticeable after
time.
Through his anti-consumerist organisation,
Lasn himself has begun to challenge the negative effects of consumerism
identified within his text.
Using a tactic known as ‘Culture-Jamming’
an act that was heavily influenced by the Situationist movement, Adbusters
create ‘subvertisements’ with the aim of interrupting the normal consumerist experience
commonly by altering existing advertisements to demonstrate their message.
“Culture jammers subvertise. A
well-produced print “subvertisement” mimics the look and feel of the target ad,
prompting the classic double take as viewers realize what they’re seeing is in
fact the very opposite of what they expected.”
(Lasn, 1999, p. 131)
The subvertisements created by Adbusters
commonly employ the aesthetic of the corporation they are targeting; thereby
creating this “double take” as described by Lasn. This technique directly
challenges the predictability aspect of McDonaldization as Adbusters are
altering something the public sees everyday, that they almost take for granted
and altering it to create something so unexpected that it evokes this sense of
shock within the audience.
For example, within their subvertisements
in opposition to Swedish brand Absolut Vodka (Figures A-D), Adbusters mimic the
bold typeface and imagery seen in the original advertisements for the brand,
almost so at first glance the audience could believe it is a normal
advertisement.
As the advertisers are trying to sell the
product, the original advertisements portray the product, which could
potentially be quite dangerous, in a positive light. In direct protest to this
Adbusters have replaced the positive tagline with ones with negative
connotations such as “Absolute AA” and have imagery in which the chairs have
been arranged in the shape of the vodka bottle to demonstrate the darker side
to alcohol abuse.
As well as the subvertisements designed by
Adbusters, Culture Jamming can also take a more informal form of protest with some
culture jammers choosing to take direct action to their surrounding environment
by defacing existing billboards to suit their anti-consumerist message.
“The culture jammer is seized by a similar
sense of urgency to do something, anything, to escape the consumerist script.”
(Lasn, 1999, p.108)
For example, in one piece of culture
jamming a Esso gas station sign (Figure E) had been defaced simply by placing
to strips of tape on each of the ‘S’ to create dollar signs in a protest of the
companies gas prices. This is a direct reaction to the consumerist environment
we are surrounded by due to Globalization and Mcdonaldization and a common
tactic used in culture jamming to challenge this.
Another way in which Lasn suggests we as
individuals can begin the challenge Globalisation and the effects that
McDonaldisation has had upon our everyday lives is to not only consider what we
are doing but the purpose of it. This directly relates to the Graphic Design
industry, Graphic designers need to produce design for a purpose and not just
design for designs sake.
“Authentic acts tend to get noticed amid
the fakery and correctness on which postmodern culture thrives.”
(Lasn, 1999, p. 99)
As Graphic Designers there is almost a
responsibility to produce the “authentic acts’’ which Lasn describes, producing
design which has no purpose or is not communicating anything only fuels the
predictability aspect of McDonaldisation as there is nothing to differentiate
it from the rest of the design in the public domain, it would all be the same.
United Colors of Benetton’s billboard
advertisements are a particular example of how design can be used to
communicate an important message or issue and challenging the audiences
conception. The billboards, which commonly feature symbolic photographic images
aiming to shock the audience, have been the subject of praise for highlighting
awareness of significant social issues and for taking a stand against injustices
on human rights, civil liberties and environmental rights.
Oliviero Tosconi, a photographer who has contributed
to many of United Colors of Benetton’s more shocking campaigns has said
regarding his advertisement, which portrays a man dying of AIDS (Figure F) that
he wanted “to use the form of poster advertising to make people aware of this
[AIDS] tragedy at a time when no-one dared to show AIDS patients”.
One of the reasons why these advertisements
were so successful is that during the time in which they were released these
issues such as race, religion and sex were scarcely covered. The advertisements
therefore challenged social conventions by not being the predictable
McDonaldized advertisements that the audience was used to seeing and instead
gave them something unexpected.
Although it is evident that in terms of the
fast-food industry that the aspects of McDonaldiztion such as predictability and
calculability have been the key to their success, with chains such as McDonalds
now serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. Applying the
same processes to other aspects of our society, in particular Graphic Design can
result in meaningless, predictable design, which ultimately serve no purpose.
Therefore as designers it is our
responsibility to prevent this from happening by producing design which not
only effectively communicates an important and relevant cause, as shown in the
subvertisements by Adbusters and the United Colors Benetton campaign but
ultimately create something that is unexpected by the audience.
Bibliography
Kroc, R. (1987) ‘Grinding it Out: The
Making of McDonald’s’. Chicago. St. Martins Paperbacks
Schlosser, E. (2002) ‘Fast Food Nation,
What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World’. London. Penguin Books
Ritzer, G. (1993) ‘The McDonaldization of
Society’. USA. SAGE Publications
Lasn, K. (1999) ‘Culture Jam, How to Reverse
America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – and Why We Must’ USA. William Morrow and
Company, Inc.
Wikipedia (N/A) ‘McDonaldization’
[Internet] Available from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldization>
[Accessed January 2014]
Wikipedia (N/A) ‘The McDonaldization of
Society’ [Internet] Available from
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_McDonaldization_of_Society>
[Accessed January 2014]
Anon. (2000) ‘McDonaldization.com –
Exposing the Iron Cage’ [Internet] Available from <http://www.mcdonaldization.com>
[Accessed January 2014]
Anon. (2010) ‘Tabloid Watch: Mail Online’s
Pointless ‘Stories’’ [Internet] Available from <http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/mail-website-slips-up.html>
[Accessed January 2014]
Wikipedia (N/A) ‘Shock Advertising’
[Internet] Available from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_advertising>
[Accessed January 2014]
Crawshow, S. (1995) ‘Benetton Sued Over
Shock Ads’ [Internet] Available from <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/benetton-sued-over-shock-ads-1569139.html>
[Accessed February 2014]
Adbusters (N/A) ‘Spoof ads’ [Internet]
Available from <https://www.adbusters.org/spoofads>
[Accessed February 2014]
Haylett, C. (2012) ‘Culture Jamming –
Creative Method of Communication or Pure Form of Vandalism?’ [Internet]
Available From <http://charlottehaylettinaus.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/culture-jamming-creative-method-of-communication-or-pure-form-of-vandalism/>
[Accessed February 2014]
FIGURE A: Adbusters, (2011) Absolut Craze
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/absolut-craze
[Accessed February 2014]
FIGURE B: Adbusters, (2011) Absolut Craze
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/absolut-craze
[Accessed February 2014]
FIGURE C: Adbusters, (2011) Absolut Craze
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/absolut-craze
[Accessed February 2014]
FIGURE D: Adbusters, (2011) Absolut Craze
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.adbusters.org/spoofads/absolut-craze
[Accessed February 2014]
FIGURE E: Anon, (2002) Esso Sign [ONLINE]
Available at: http://charlottehaylettinaus.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/culture-jamming-creative-method-of-communication-or-pure-form-of-vandalism/
[Accessed February 2014]
FIGURE F: Toscani, O. (1992) David Kirby
[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/oliviero-toscani
[Accessed February 2014]
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