Introduction: Growing Up in the Risk Society

Abstract

A recent McDonald’s TV commercial opens with two scenes showing a spoilt young boy engaged in typical domestic mischief. Tired of painting a tree at his easel, he prefers to draw the same picture on his bedroom wall. Bored with art, he then decides to play golf with his father’s clubs in the middle of the living room where his strokes endanger the bourgeois neatness. The message embedded in these brief visions of contemporary life are clear: children are bored, out of control and incapable of making appropriate choices. Because they are ‘free from responsibility’ in the modern world they also need the understanding guidance of a caring parent. And, as if we didn’t get this idea, the camera zooms in on the mother’s chagrined face. As she anxiously watches his playful antics the male voice-over intones ‘Kids don’t always make the best choices.’ But of course the parable of modern childrearing does not stop here. We then see the no-longer-distressed mother taking her son for something to eat. The last scene shows the mother and son smiling and chatting as they enjoy their ‘healthy’ meal at McDonald’s. The announcer now explains, ‘At McDonald’s they can’t go wrong. They can choose their favourite happy meal food and a drink like milk or juice… new apple slices with caramel dip.’