- In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food. In 2014, the spending rose to nearly 200 billion. By 2020, the number is expected to be over $223 billion.
- Proportionally, hash browns have more fat and calories than a cheeseburger or Big Mac.
- During the early 1900s, the hamburger was thought to be polluted, unsafe to eat, and food for the poor. Street carts, not restaurants, typically served them.
- Late comedian and talk-show host Johnny Carson labeled the hamburger the "McClog the Artery."
- Every month, approximately nine out of 10 American children visit a McDonald’s restaurant.
- Children who regularly eat fast food do worse in school than their peers
- At some fast food chains, both in U.S. and in other countries, managers are rewarded bonuses when they reduce employee wages to save money.
- To keep salaries low, McDonald’s and other fast food chains have intentionally engaged in anti-union activities.
- Today, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products are sold in every country in the world, except North Korea.
- In 2005, Advertisting Age cited Ronald McDonald as the number two top-10 advertising icons of the twentieth century. The Marlboro Man was number one.
- The first located printed reference to hamburgers appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 1894.
- There are more than 300,000 fast food restaurants in the U.S. alone.
- Due to anti-German sentiment during WWI, an alternative name for a hamburger (which was derived from the Hamburg steak sandwiches eaten on immigrant ships between Hamburg, Germany, and America in the 1800s) was “salisbury steak.” It was named after Dr. Salisbury who prescribed ground beef for patients suffering from anemia, asthma, and other illnesses.
- The popularization of the automobile resulted in “flashier” fast food restaurant architecture to catch the attention of drivers. This lasted until the 1970s when communities began to complain about the exaggerated buildings.
- A&W Root Beer is named after Roy Allen and Frank Wright, the founders of the company. Allen bought the recipe from a pharmacist who had perfected it for making root beer. A&W was one of the first fast food franchises.
- Caffeine is the most commonly used drug in the world, and high doses can have serious health effects, including muscle weakness, heart irregularities, and infertility. Children and teenagers consume more than 64 gallons of soft drinks per year.
- A soda a day can age you by as many as 4.6 additional years
- Television greatly expanded the ability of advertisers to reach children and try to develop brand loyalty early in life. Today the average American child sees more than 10,000 food advertisements each year on television.
- Fast food companies, the movie industry, and theme parks have a long and financially lucrative relationship. The companies seek to promote and “product place” one another for incredible profit. For example, Frito Lay sponsors the California Screamin’ roller coaster at Disneyland, and movies intentionally feature a type of fast food (e.g., Pizza Hut in Wayne’s World).
- Advertising Age selected the McDonald’s slogan “You Deserve a Break Today” as the best advertising campaign of the twentieth century. Other notable slogans were Burger King’s “Burger King, Home of the Whopper” and Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?”
- In 1949, Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California: the McDonald Brothers Burger Bar Drive-In.
- McDonald’s is Brazil’s largest employer.
- When McDonald’s opened an outlet in Kuwait shortly after the end of the Gulf War, the line of cars waiting to eat there was seven miles long.
- In 2004, PETA released a video taken at Pilgrim’s Pride, a chicken supplier to fast food restaurants, which showed intense animal cruelty
- In 1949, Forrest Raffel and his younger brother Leroy created a restaurant that sold roast beef sandwiches.
- They spelled out the initials “Raffel Brothers (RB) to create the name “Arby’s.”
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