More Cannes Controversy: 'Fast Food Nation' Premieres
Another contentious film is set to premiere at Cannes tomorrow night, though the religious suppositions challenged in Fast Food Nation—a fictionalized movie starring Ethan Hawke based on the non-fiction best seller—are about America's blind worship of fast food behemoth chains and their conveniently numbered combo menus. And while the industry's deeply vested interests haven't rallied a counterattack to match the scale of that of Da Vinci's devout detractors, as the WSJ reports, they still don't plan on letting Nation premiere without a fight:
[M]ore than a dozen trade groups representing producers of beef, potatoes, milk and snacks, along with restaurant groups, are fighting back with a media campaign to counter what one groups contends is the "indigestible propaganda" [Nation author Eric] Schlosser is spreading. [...]
[McDonald's Corp.] is also funding TCS Daily, an arm of the Washington lobbying and public-relations firm DCI Group, that is making more pointed attacks against Mr. Schlosser and his work. Last week, TCS Daily launched a Web site called Fast Talk Nation that called his theories "rhetoric" and argued that he wants to decriminalize marijuana, based on excerpts from one of his other books, "Reefer Madness," about sex, drugs and cheap labor in the American black market.
While McDonald's and the other patty pushers have a right to defend themselves, we don't think lasering in on Schlosser's support for legalizing weed was the wisest tact, seeing as late night, THC-induced hunger pangs probably account for a sizable slice of their deep-fried sales pie.