At first blush, you might think that “Dave's Hot 'N Juicy” is the title of a pornographic movie. Actually, it's only a hamburger.
Well, not just any old hamburger. The Hot 'N Juicy is fast food giant Wendy's reinvented burger. In 2009, shortly after a hedge-fund whiz took over the chain, a directive came down from on high to deconstruct and reconstruct the product, which hadn't changed since the company started 42 years ago.
Operating under the code name of “Project Gold Hamburger,” the effort was a Pentagon-style mobilization involving the full genius of the corporate system. Money was no object. Executives were deployed from corporate headquarters to travel across country and surreptitiously measure the characteristics of their competitors' burgers. They brought in a pickle chemist. A cadre of bun analysts worked on issues of strength and texture. Consumers were surveyed on the crucial matter of lettuce crunch. The matter of proper patty-press repetitions was tested to the nth degree.
Finally, after two-and-a-half years and millions of dollars — ta da! — the Hot 'N Juicy is available for purchase. The result should not be taken lightly.
Indeed, the “improved” Wendy's burger has a fattier beef patty, a buttered bun, and whole-fat mayonnaise — weighing in at 33 grams of fat and 580 calories per burger. That's 7 fat grams and 70 calories more than the comparable Quarter Pounder with Cheese at McDonald's. If that's not enough overkill for you, sample the bigger Hot 'N Juicy burgers with 810 calories and 48 grams of fat.
Such corporate overkill is nonsense. If the hedge-fund magnate really wanted a better burger, all he had to do was invite himself to a few backyard cookouts in any blue-collar zip code in America. That's where you find hot and juicy.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.