McDonald’s of Campbelltown for Das Superpaper

C-Town Maccas Run: A User’s Guide. Words by Giselle Stanborough, photography by Alana Dimou. As part of Das Superpaper’s 28th issue, Western Sydney: A portrait of a place featuring guest editor David Capra.

Consider this article a food review gone wrong. Or an estranged catalogue of food photography. Perhaps a food blogger riding the high of a terrifying power trip or Terry Durack gone way too casual with accompanying photography taking a turn for the not-quite-right. This project is an exploration of the “myth of consistent corporate identity”, which one would assume fairly standard across the board considering the success of the franchise in question. But you’d be wrong.

Accompanying Sydney artists Giselle Stanborough and David Capra we trawled through all 12 McDonald’s restaurants spanning the greater Campbelltown region in Sydney to see if indeed each restaurant was reliable in its assumed standardised, generic offerings (a Big Mac was ordered at each venue as basis for comparison). Under the watchful gaze of Giselle no detail was left unnoticed; general decor in alignment with McDonald’s current promotion, pickle distribution, the array of offerings in the McCafé display, font consistency, were the relief blubs on beverage cups popped accurately? From faded signage, to broken lightboxes, to burnt burgers and typographic grandeur absolutely everything was noted.

An interesting fact about McDonald’s is their no photography policy. Ask politely waving your humble camera and you’ll be greeted with a wavering “no” from a curious adolescent employee and I quickly learned taking photos on the fly and hiding in a corner is no easy task. Regardless, here here are my observations, a portrait of the McDonald’s of Campbelltown. The full article C-Town Maccas Run: A User’s Guide can be found on page 70 of Das SUPERPAPER Issue 28, both an elightning and incredibly amusing read by Giselle I would urge you all to take a look at right away. It’s online now but will be available in print in a few weeks time. Enjoy!