So this fast food bonanza at the Shanghai World Expo is the American contribution to a better life writ large(!) writ global? Is this rather telling of the power and profit-myopia of conventional business practice?
Despite the mandate not being to make money (at least not right there and then), but rather social diplomacy, international relations, and the imagination of a "better city, better life." The opportunity to make a big buck has indeed been well seized. A veritable coup by business-as-usual. And strangely enough, this is authenticity at work!
Read Adam Minter's post (photo borrowed there-from.)
Comment #7 was particularly well crafted:
...Imagine that you are Yum! or PepsiCo? Now envision 70 million Chinese visitors, purposely made hungry and thirsty by Expo rules, descending on your take-out joints? If each buys the equivalent of a $1 “USA First!” meal, that’s $70 million in return for a pittance of a sponsorship, be it $1 million or $5 million. A tax deductible sponsorship, mind you. This is a freaking bonanza for the fast food barons in the USA Shopping Mall!
