Page 38 - The Disneyization of Society

THEMING

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Figure 2.1 The Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonald’s in Chicago

McDonald’s in Disney Village at Disneyland Paris is claimed to have been inspired
by Italian theatre. In 2001, an article in the New York Times announced that a
huge McDonald’s was planned for Times Square that would have the ambience of
a Broadway theatre. 46 When Schlosser visited the McDonald’s near Dachau con-
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centration camp, it had a Wild West theme. Yan describes a themed McDonald’s
in Beijing in which the restaurant was decorated like a ship and crew members
wore sailor uniforms, rather than conventional McDonald’s garb. 48 The narrative
was one of Uncle McDonald’s Adventure which is meant to entail a round-the-
world trip. Also, the company has announced that it is going to refurbish some of
its outlets as traditional diners, thereby drawing on a motif that is an extremely
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popular thematic focus for American restaurant chains. A journalist reported in
The Times that not only was Denny’s remodelling some of its restaurants ‘to give
the nostalgic feel of traditional diners’, McDonald’s was doing the same and had
just opened its ‘first diner-style outlet in Kokomo, Indiana, and customers are lin-
ing up to eat such old-fashioned American fare as turkey steak and mashed
potato’. A second has since opened in another town in Indiana. It remains to be
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seen whether these McDonald’s diners will be rolled out more widely but the fact