The term “supersize me” has existed for so long that people seem to have forgotten how it started. Sadly that means it was around for three decades. The supersize option at McDonald’s was not originally the supersize if you can believe it. Even if you can’t, it came about as a means of the partnership that McDonald’s entered into with 1993’s box office hit Jurassic Park. If you look it up you’ll find out that it’s true, that without Jurassic Park we might not even have such a thing as supersizing.
The original idea was to “dino-size” the meal, meaning that it was bigger in a couple ways. There were more fries, the drink was larger, and your drink came in a plastic cup with the image of a dinosaur from the movie. People tended to collect these even despite the fact that eventually the image would fade and wash away and the cups themselves were prone to cracking now and again due to extreme temperatures in the dishwasher. But they were a part of movie memorabilia and it’s no doubt that some people kept them just for the memories.
Once the film was out of theaters however the chain had to change the “dino-sized” meal to a supersized meal, which it remains today, even though they no longer call it supersize. These days McDonald’s will ask if you want your meal in small, medium, or large, meaning of course that your drink and fries will be affected but the burger or sandwich you order will still be the same. What is now called large is what supersize used to be. To be honest, most people don’t need a half pound of fries, and enough soda to drown a small anthill. The pushing of these products is fairly easy for McDonald’s since it increases the price more than a little and the profits tend to outweigh the added cost of what you’re getting.
In essence, supersizing is something that never really needed to be continued. The effect of doing this for a movie was great, it offered a treat to the customer that should have been a limited thing. When McDonald’s offers a promotional deal with a new sandwich or menu item that’s specifically pushed as a limited-time offer like the McRib or the Shamrock Shake, people understand that it won’t be around forever and will come in limited quantities. Of course, the McRib and other specials tend to take more money to bring out now and again and as a result aren’t a normal part of the menu lineup. The add-ons however are something that people have come to expect.
So while most of us grew up and came of age with McDonald’s supersize, most don’t remember that it all started as “Dino-size” as part of a promotion with one of the ’90s best movies, Jurassic Park.
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