Popular Culture Review Vol. 3, No. 2, August 1992 | Page 65

Capitalism Masquerades
as a Postmodernist:
McDonald's and the
Politics of Reading
McDonald's golden arches are now anti-foundationalist
structures—they no longer rise out of the ground; the new, smaller
"M's" float in mid-air. These changes parallel a new strategy; the
once monolithic and monotonous modernist design now gives way to a
McDonald's that attempts to accommodate different neighborhoods
and blend into local culture~on the Mississippi you can eat a
hamburger and float in a reproduction of an 1880's side-wheeler, and
in Pushkin square you can pay for your meal with rubles.
This apparent willingness to tolerate difference is further
reflected in McDonald's attitudes towards its critics. McDonald's
disarms its opponents by conceding to their discourse. A speech by
Chief Seattle of the Squamish people graces the cover of McDonald's
1989 annual report, which also includes spectacular pictures on
recycled paper of forests and oceans.
Boycotted for their
environmental record, McDonald's now promotes the motto "reduce,
reuse, recycle." Criticized for the limited nutritional value of its
food, McDonald's opens up restaurants in hospitals and allies itself in
the fight against disease.
Criticized for its garish design,
McDonald's now tries to construct buildings that blend into local
neighborhoods. McE)onald's recent advertising campaigns similarly
reflect a change in strategy; intertextuality, playful language, and
parody are just some of the techniques that the corporation has
borrowed from contemp>orary art to sell its hamburgers.
McDonald's appears to be almost the perfect representative
of postmodernist culture as the corporation acconunodates differences
from Muscovites to southerners, respects the local environment,
challenges the borders between self and other in its willingness to
adopt the discourse of its opponents, and airs avant garde
commercials.
Baudrillard writes, "We have passed into a kind of hyperreal where things are being replayed ad infinitum" (Forget Foucault
69), which, he argues in an earlier work, is perfectly manifested in