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Business

Hamburger U

by Sid Parham on February 21, 2010 · Comments

in cultural studies

Disrespecting Ronald McDonald
Image by Steve Rhode via Flickr

I had a chance last fall to visit McDonald’s training center outside of Chicago–Hamburger University.   The center rents meeting rooms and hosts conferences which is how I ventured on campus.  We were notified that there was a “dress code” on campus that was business casual and that no jeans or tee shirts were to be worn.  Since much of my industry is located in Utah and works outdoors this was not a popular choice,  As the group’s resident preppy I was already equipped qwith a good supply of  argyle sweaters and khaki pants

As someone who had spent most his life in Universities, I was mildly amused at McDonald’s view of the University where students followed dress codes, where everything was neat and orderly, and where everyone stuck to the proscribed curriculum.  I don’t think such a university ever existed; it certainly hasn’t existed in America since the 1950’s.  Now they treated us very well, provided meals without a hamburger in sight, and with the exception of a fiberglass stature of Ronald McDonald lounging on a bench on the second floor there was no hint of the company’s main business in the decor of the campus building.

The “campus” is equally impressive.  A large number of acres in suburban Chicago have been carefully shaped by adding undulations.  The landscaping is beautiful with trees, flowerbeds, and paths all artfully placed.  two ponds, elevated to the status of “lakes,” on our map, grace the area.  Ducks swim happily in Lake Ray and Lake Fred, ( named for the founders of McDonald’s).  As we stared out the window of our meeting room we noticed a duck that seemed to have its head continually underwater.  After some time, we realized this was an anchored decoy, one of several on the two lakes.

This decoy brought into focus the dis-ease I had felt on the campus.  The entire project was one of control.  People’s behavior shaped by rules and codes. Nature structured, prettied up, and put “to work” in the name of profit.  I am perhaps exaggerating, but the entire place seemed to me to be a semiotic expression of American Corporate desire to control nature.


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Social Life, Social Media, and Business

by oldbeforewise on December 21, 2008 · Comments

in social media

Those who twitter and /or use other social media are aware that the hot topic currently is the relationship of commerce to Social Media. The start of this discussion was Chris Brogan’s taking a $500.gift card from Kmart and talking about Kmart in his blog. He was upfront about the fact he’d taken money and each reader could do with that information as they chose.

Some seemed fine with it, others were outraged, and not a small number wondered how they too could get paid. In the resulting brouhaha, it seemed as if no one looked at real life or at history to see what happens in the social world.

My father joined a small city law firm in 1946. I grew up in a household where many of the social events included clients. I remember being told shortly after my father made partner that we would be joining the new less prestigious country club because the firm needed representation there. Neither “benevolent: nor “protective” are words I would apply to my father, but he joined the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks because there were business connections to be made. His firm represented the best woman’s shop in town; my mother and my sister shopped there regularly. I could fill two or three more paragraphs with similar examples, but you get the idea.

My description implies that I believe the only connection among these people was, in Marx’s words, “the cash nexus.” The lived experience was quite different. Many of these people became friends. Some, the fathers of my friends, I got to know well and some served as mentors as I grew up. No real business was ever done at social gatherings. Anyone who tried would have been thought crude. Although “come by the store” or “call me at the office” were acceptable practices. There was no deception here. Everyone knew what the others’ businesses were.

Social life and business life have intermingled perhaps as far back as medieval guilds. We should not be surprised that it’s happening in Social Media. Which came first, business or socializing? I would suggest that they are inseparable in the modern world. Twitter, Blogging et al. have roots in commercial enterprises, are the result of a technology created for business, and so far as I can tell populated mostly by people who market something. Possibly Social Media makes up for a lack of sociability in many parts of the workplace. One does not imagine that Wal-Mart’s lawyers shop at Wal-Mart.

In such a space, honesty about our business and some reticence about what we are selling seems necessary to preserve the social aspects of the virtual space. Chris Brogan offers a step toward that honesty. The many tweets and comments are the struggles to define taste and tact in this virtual space.

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