The satirical film, "Super Size Me," created by Morgan Spurlock, is intended to show the world the extremely harmful effects of fast food. Spurlock focuses the film on one of the biggest fast food companies in the nation, McDonald's. This was a perfect choice at the time (2004) not only because of the pending lawsuit, but because it quite literally is the largest in the industry. For a month straight, Spurlock only eats McDonalds food products to prove a point that the restaurants food has no nutritional value and is causing the population of America to become obese. While this is the basic concept of the film Spurlock also uses many rhetorical strategies and devices to successfully get his point across. .
Spurlock meticulously explains his reasoning for producing the film and showing how serious the obesity epidemic really is. Through the use of ethos, Spurlock shows the audience every single detail of his experience throughout his experiment. Even some of the details the audience may not want to see. One of the most iconic and scarring scenes in the film is the scene where Spurlock becomes sick. He had just finished his first "super sized"" meal, and about twenty minutes after Spurlock had began eating it he threw up all of it up. This scene does make the majority of the audience quite uncomfortable, but it is helpful in getting the message across to the viewers of how bad this food is for you. It shows the viewers that this food is so toxic to your body that it makes you physically ill. .
Spurlock does not stop there; the film also shows the audience how horrendous public school lunch programs have become, lack of physical education and health classes, and major food addictions. He went to schools in several states to question them about their lunch programs, gym classes, and health programs. What Spurlock found is that lunches being provided by the schools were nothing close to nutritious, with the majority of the meals being frozen and prepackaged.
