Analyzing Everyday Rhetoric: The Power of Fast Food and the KFC Double Down

I seem to be hearing this kind of conversation between two people everywhere, both in real life and in the blogging world:

“The KFC Double Down looks disgusting.”

“Ew, why would they have made it?”

“I almost want to get it just to see what it’s like.”

“Yeah, me too.”

We wonder why we’re getting larger. We wonder why the food manufacturers keep making more and more twisted, crazy concoctions which they claim are edible. We wonder why there are entire aisles in the grocery store devoted to candy or chips or soft drinks, and then just one section devoted to fresh produce.

The above dialogue is the reason why. If, as consumers, we continue to buy these things, then the food manufacturers will be led to believe that we want them.

We have to struggle through the dizzying world of advertising that uses strategic rhetoric to try to trick us into buying these items, it’s true. But ultimately, we are the ones who can control the big corporations, if we choose to. If we don’t want the Double Down to exist, it doesn’t have to be created in the first place. But if we continue to buy it under the facade of curiosity, then the Double Down is only the beginning.

And that is something we should all be afraid of.

And for the record, yes, I think the Double Down is disgusting and a great example of just how crappy fast food is; and no, I do not have any desire to go within ten feet of one of those things, let alone put the “sandwich” in my mouth.