McDonald's announced it was phasing out its Supersized fries and drinks back in 2004.
But the concept of "Supersizing" is so firmly associated with McDonald's and American fast
food culture that people still use the term more than a decade later.
So why did the Supersize menu disappear, anyway?
The reason McDonald's officially gave for making the decision to get rid of Supersizing
isn't what you might expect.
Walt Riker, a spokesman for McDonald's, explained the move in a brief statement back in 2004,
saying:
"The driving force here was menu simplification."
That's a surprising rationale, considering analysts have long considered the McDonald's
menu to be too big to keep costs down and the speed of service up, and removing Supersizing
arguably did little to address those concerns.
According to Bloomberg, in fact, McDonald's had 145 menu items in 2013, which is 85 more
than they had in 2007, just three years after Supersizing disappeared.
If anything, the menu's gotten more complicated post-Supersizing.
So there's more to the story than just a desire to keep the menu simple.
CBS News noted that the decision to get rid of Supersizing back in '04 went hand-in-hand
with increasing pressure at the time being put on fast food restaurants to offer healthier
alternatives.
Awareness of the dangers of fast food was perhaps at an all-time high, with several
high-profile lawsuits at the time against McDonald's and other chains for allegedly
not being clear enough that what they were serving was unhealthy.
Nothing really came of these lawsuits, but they raised the profile of fast food's damaging
effects, as well as the pressure on the major franchises to do something to help reverse
those effects
So it's likely that pressure had at least something to do with McDonalds nixing Supersized
options, whether the burger giant wanted to admit it or not.
But McDonalds was in a bit of a bind at the time, since it had claimed in the past that
the option to Supersize fries and drinks had nothing to do with increasing obesity rates.
So crediting those rates or just wanting to provide healthier options for getting rid
of all-things-Supersized would have contradicted the iconic eatery's past statements.
Behind the scenes, in fact, the move to remove Supersizing was done under the umbrella of
McDonald's "Eat Smart, Be Active" initiative, which launched in 2003.
The campaign was geared toward not just making McDonald's healthier, but giving stagnant
sales a much-needed boost.
At the same time Supersizing disappeared, McDonald's also traded in 2 percent milk for
1 percent, added entree salads, and tweaked portion sizes across the board.
But how popular was this upsizing option, anyway?
If you always said yes to Supersizing, it turns out, you were actually in the minority.
Spokesperson Walt Riker listed this as another reason for removing the option from menus
back in 2004, saying,
"The fact of the matter is not very many Supersize fries are sold."
That may come as a surprise to those of us who remember the Supersized menu with fondness,
but it's true.
The actual numbers are even more shocking, according to the BBC, Supersize options accounted
for just .1 percent of McDonald's total sales at the time it was phased out.
When America's favorite mustachioed documentarian Morgan Spurlock named his 2004 expose on the
physical consequences of the fast food industry Super Size Me, it forever linked McDonald's
trademark option with weight gain and a whole slew of health issues.
"Large or Supersize?"
"I think I'm gonna have to go Supersize!"
But spokesperson Walt Riker, as you'd expect, said that the film had nothing to do with
the disappearance of Supersizing.
McDonald's official line on the film was that it wasn't actually a film about their food;
it was about Spurlock making the incredibly bad choice to eat 5,000 calories a day, which
is a fair enough point.
But the success of Super Size Me certainly added negative connotations to the Supersizing
concept, likely influencing McDonald's decision to not resurrect it in the years since.
Here's the super weird thing: Supersizing is no more, but when you actually compare
current sizes to what you got when you Supersized something, there's actually not too much of
a difference!
The difference between a large and a Supersized Coke was only a relatively small 97 calories
in 2004.
When it comes to the fries, you were only getting 74 more calories and about 3 more
grams of fat in the Supersized version.
CBS News adds that a Supersized carton of fries held 7 ounces, and the large that stayed
on the menu was a 6-ounce container.
Bottom line: It's easy as ever to indulge on Mickey D's if you really want to, whether
it's called "Supersizing" or not.
So don't waste your time mourning the loss of the chain's more indulgent days, Supersizing
is still alive and well, if only in spirit.
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