Water is Not Cool at Fast Food Restaurants
Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 1:55PM I've always enjoyed hashbrowns at McDonald's. I know it's the last place in Boulder I should be eating, but once in a while, I'll walk over on a Sunday morning and grab a hashbrown because I think they're tasty.
I did that this weekend, and I noticed something fascinating at the drink station.
The nozzle that dispenses water is the least attractive thing I have ever seen. It's a white square with blunt black lettering that says WATER. No art, no color, nothing appealing. Compare it to the other drink offerings - it's surrounded by the colorful promise of thirst-quenching majesty!
Is this done deliberately to discourage people from drinking water? By associating it with staid, boring typefaces and design choices? Are we so easily repelled?
A guerrilla dietician should wage a campaign whereby flashy, attactive WATER stickers are placed over the boring ones in an effort to get peeps to drink more water. That would be refreshing. Ha?
Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? I'd love to see pics.
Reader Comments (10)
I'm surprised water has it's own dispenser at the Boulder McD's, usually it's a tiny tab attached to the lemonade dispenser.
Dustin,
Agreed! So maybe McD's gets a few bonus points for that. I'm still soooo tempted to add a unicorn sticker to the label.
Ef,
I think it depends on your perspective. Some may think that the water label is by far the most attractive. I may be mistaken, since I'm not a designer, but I think that font is Helvetica - the most popular font the world over. And what most other fonts are inspired from. To me the label says "come and consume me, I'm different. I'm clear of all things diabolical to your internal organs. I'm fresh, I'm clean and I mean business."
Kevin
@showtunes
Yeah, I have noticed this phenomena concerning water's lack of coolness.
For the past six years, I've made sure to always order water, no matter where I am... though I sometimes have beer with it. People serving at fast food drive throughs always have to ask me at least twice what it is that I want to drink. I assume that they hear such options as "irradiated hippo piss" more often by the shear amount of surprise and flabbergastration they express.
Even if the water casing on the fountain doesn't look cool (it doesn't), even if the establishment doesn't have a machine meant for dispensing only water (they often don't), and even if restaurants want water to look lame because they make more money from selling soda (they do), I still choose water.
It costs less, helps me keep my non-obese figure, helps food to taste better and helps me to not have a hangover the next day. YAY!
Kevin,
Your brain is beautiful.
Zeblue,
I've been drinking waaaay more water since my liver issues began in February - I'm just surprised it took me this long to notice the dispenser thing.
But I'm right there with you re: irradiated hippo piss, though my command of language is far less colorful than yours. What do you think of beverages like Izze - essentially carbonated fruit juice? I've got a soft spot for them, but I fear that they're just as villainous as soda in general.
Just like girls lined up on the wall at a dance. It is the plain one that is probably going to be best for you in the long run!
Tekee,
That's a good way of looking at it - the whole judging a book by its cover thing. Well said.
Oh, totally. I've noticed this all over the place.
Sometimes, instead of its own bleak dispenser, all it gets is a little tab on the bottom of some other drink like pink lemonade. You press the tab down and the lemonade turns to water temporarily. Poor little loser water.
Zarenki,
I feel bad for water. It's the most important thing around, but it gets the shaft so often.