‘Biggie’ size to be called ‘medium’ at Wendy’s
DUBLIN, Ohio — “Biggie” fries and drinks at Wendy’s have been demoted. The Biggie portion size, formerly the fast food restaurant’s equivalent of a large, will now be called a medium. It’s only a name change, and the portion customers get — the equivalent of almost three 12-ounce cans of soda for the drinks — won’t get smaller.
Hmm…kinda makes you wonder how big a “Large” is going to be, doesn’t it? (You see those five gallon pickle buckets in back? Well, guess what they’re gonna be used for???)
So, if I understand things correctly, all we really have in the end is a semantic change? Nothing will be done to actually reduce portion sizes, so if someone really wants their 36-oz. cup of sugar water, they can by all means still get it, right? Why then is Wendy’s management claiming the high ground here? It’s not as if they’ve actually done anything positive.
Over the past few years, McDonald’s finally backed off it’s largest portion size, but the trend in the fast food industry has been toward ever-larger portions. Meanwhile, Americans are finding it tougher to fit into airplane seats (and it’s NOT because airlines are reducing seat sizes). Our children are becoming ever more obese and sedentary, and ever more addicted to fast food. We’re raising a generation of children who believe that eating their vegetables means putting ketchup on their french fries and an extra pickle on their double bacon cheeseburger. Too many of our children believe that exercise means playing Madden Football on their Xbox.
What sort of health problems are we setting our children up for later in their lives? I suppose that remains to be seen, but the early returns aren’t promising.
Wendy’s International Inc. research shows demand for big drinks, but people were confused by the designation of Biggie and Great Biggie, the former extra-large size, spokesman Denny Lynch said. Switching to a more straightforward small, medium and large sizes made sense, he said.
Right, because most Americans are too stupid and lacking in self-control to understand that the only thing changing here are the names of the portions, not the actual size. Oh, it’s a “Medium”? Well, OK, then; load me up!! You see, I’m cutting back already….
The real problem here is that while fast food purveyors talk the talk when it comes to owning up to their role in this country’s (no pun intended) growing obesity problem, they are merely shuffling deck chairs when it comes to doing anything even close to substantive.
The Great Biggie, equal to 3 1/2 12-ounce cans of soda, will now be classified as a large. Medium portions will be bumped down to small sizes.
The move might help appease critics who accuse the fast food industry of inflating portions and contributing to the nation’s obesity problem, said restaurant analyst Dennis Lombardi, of WD Partners in Columbus.
Removing the Biggie designation makes size “less of an issue for people who want to talk about restaurants, especially fast-food restaurants, who offer excessively large portions,” he said.
IF Wendy’s were reducing portion sizes and taking other steps to make their menu a healthier place to graze, this news might be something to get excited about. By merely changing the NAMES of the portion sizes, however, all they are doing is attempting to delude people too ignorant to understand what being done to them.
Fast food restaurants are slowly but surely killing Americans in ever-increasing numbers, and yet none of the companies responsible for this seem to care…because it’s all about the bottom line.
