"Because we only feed in the United States less than 1 per cent of the meals, most of them are eaten elsewhere. Most meals are eaten at home. So to make McDonald's the target is not going to solve the problem"
About this Quote
Cantalupo’s line is a corporate judo move: redirect the punch from a single villain to a sprawling system no one can quite put on trial. By leading with the tidy statistic - “less than 1 per cent of the meals” - he shrinks McDonald’s from cultural colossus to rounding error, recasting outrage as mathematically naive. It’s not just a defense; it’s an attempt to reset the terms of blame. If most meals are eaten at home, he implies, then the real problem is ordinary life: grocery carts, kitchens, habits, and the quiet calculus of time and money.
The subtext is sharper. Targeting McDonald’s isn’t merely ineffective, he suggests; it’s a kind of moral theater. Fast food becomes a convenient proxy for anxieties about health, class, and modernity - an icon you can boycott, photograph, and scold. That framing protects the brand while flattering the critic: go ahead, rage at the golden arches; it’s easier than confronting food deserts, agricultural subsidies, portion inflation, and work schedules that make “cooking at home” feel like a privilege masquerading as virtue.
Context matters: early-2000s America, post-Super Size Me, with fast food positioned as the face of an obesity crisis. Cantalupo, then McDonald’s CEO, answers not with contrition but with diffusion. It’s effective rhetoric because it’s partially true and strategically incomplete: McDonald’s may serve a small share of meals, but it serves an outsized share of symbolism - and marketing muscle. The quote wagers that numbers can neutralize that cultural fact.
The subtext is sharper. Targeting McDonald’s isn’t merely ineffective, he suggests; it’s a kind of moral theater. Fast food becomes a convenient proxy for anxieties about health, class, and modernity - an icon you can boycott, photograph, and scold. That framing protects the brand while flattering the critic: go ahead, rage at the golden arches; it’s easier than confronting food deserts, agricultural subsidies, portion inflation, and work schedules that make “cooking at home” feel like a privilege masquerading as virtue.
Context matters: early-2000s America, post-Super Size Me, with fast food positioned as the face of an obesity crisis. Cantalupo, then McDonald’s CEO, answers not with contrition but with diffusion. It’s effective rhetoric because it’s partially true and strategically incomplete: McDonald’s may serve a small share of meals, but it serves an outsized share of symbolism - and marketing muscle. The quote wagers that numbers can neutralize that cultural fact.
Quote Details
| Topic | Food |
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