Rhetorical Analysis: Analyzing Audience in McDonalds’
Websites
Envision Connection: Complete in conjunction with Chapter 15,
“McDonaldization”
Assignment: Visit the “World of McDonalds” website at
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/websites.html. Using this homepage as a
starting point, explore several of the different websites used to target
different audiences:
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The website for kids (http://www.happymeal.com/en_US/)
The website for tweens (http://www.mcworld.com/)
The Latino website (http://www.meencanta.com/)
The Asian Pacific American website (http://www.myinspirasian.com/)
The African American website
(http://www.365black.com/365black/index.jsp)
One or more of the international McDonalds websites
(http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/country/map.html)
Choose two or three of the websites you visited and use the Prewriting
Checklist from chapters 2 and 5 to help you brainstorm the different ways
that McDonalds designed the websites to persuade specific audiences. Be
sure to look at imagery, language (word choice as well as language choice),
layout, organization, and use of multimediea.
Transform your brainstorm into a comparative rhetorical analysis of 6-8
pages.
For Added Challenge: Imagine McDonalds was going to open a series of
on-campus eateries at universities across the U.S. Use the strategies
discussed in chapter 8 to help you mock up a website aimed at that
particular audience.
Christine Alfano & Alyssa O’Brien, Envision In Depth. 2nd edition. NY: Pearson, 2010.