Unhappy Meals

Unhappy Meals

McDonald’s is floundering. There’s no other way to say it. The global fast food chain has experienced declining U.S. sales for well over a year now. But why? I’d love to gloat that Americans have finally caught on that the Golden Arches peddles...
Wonderfully Deceptive Superfood Marketing

Wonderfully Deceptive Superfood Marketing

The new comedy show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver included a well-deserved riff on the food industry in its first episode. Oliver, who you might know from his work on Comedy Central’s fake news program, The Daily Show, went after two well-deserved targets:...
The Corporate Land of Oz

The Corporate Land of Oz

In L. Frank Baum’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the “wizard’ turns out to be a phony — just an old guy sitting behind a curtain, using his booming voice to spew nonsense in a vain effort to fool people. But now, a century after Baum’s...
Would You Like a Shot of Formaldehyde with That?

Would You Like a Shot of Formaldehyde with That?

The delightfully naughty movie star Mae West liked to joke: “I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.” Less delightful are some of the purity claims of such food manufacturing giants as PepsiCo, which has long marketed a line of its Frito-Lay snack foods as...