Fast food is bad for you.  Very bad for you.  It is mostly high in calorie, high in fat, and low in nutritional content.  Most people “know” that fast food is bad for them, but much of the actual information is completely hidden from the consumer.  Obamacare has changed that.  Chain restaurants of, I believe, 20 stores or more are now required to post calorie information on their menus.  It’s a small step, but it provides consumers with needed information to make a healthy decision.

Or at least it should.  Then psychology comes into play and all rational decision making goes right out the window.  In this case, the psychology comes in the form of advertising.  And it’s kind of brilliant.  McDonald’s is taking lemons and turning it into artery clogging, heart attack inducing lemonade.  Some of their restaurants have a sign for their sausage muffin breakfast meal and they display the calorie count of over 1,000 calories in the biggest typeface and the under $5 price in smaller typeface.  The implication is look at how many calories you can get for this low, low price!  Your average McDonald’s patron does not have the time nor the inclination to do a detailed analysis of what’s good or bad about the meal they are about to purchase.  They know that they need around 2,000 calories a day and look at this, they can get half of those calories for only $5!  What a deal!

All advertising is deceptive.  That’s kind of the point.  It makes you feel you need something that you really don’t need.  This McDonald’s advertising campaign is so deceptive it would make satan blush.  Bravo, McDonald’s, bravo.