What's with all the big stuff?

After years of trying to develop what he called a “premium” hamburger, McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden surprised no one the other day by announcing that the company’s new focus is not making burgers better, just a lot bigger.

The move won’t please nutritionists, but it fits perfectly with a growing desire among Americans for super-sized stuff.

Consider ads for the 2024 Chevrolet Suburban boasting that, at 18 feet in length, the vehicle is “impossible to ignore.” Chevy refers to its massive SUV as “a room with a view.”

And what about the 100-year-old Stanley company that found new life when its giant drinking cups became a sensation. Now Stanley is selling a humongous 96-ounce version for $90, “thoughtfully designed to be your personal hydration companion.” When this big baby is filled with water it weighs 8.8 pounds.

In the world of fashion – or at least fashion fads – a recent headline in the New York Times noted “Fashion’s Big Idea: Oversize Everything.” Seems skinny jeans are out and clown pants are in. This month Julianne Hough wore what might have been the biggest pants in Oscar history when she hosted ABC’s red carpet show. “Hough wore a white Alexandre Vauthier couture jumpsuit with a gold and silver metallic bodice,” People Magazine dutifully reported. “The pants were so voluminous, though, that they acted as an optical illusion, making her jumpsuit look like a gown.”

The fascination with over-sized items comes at a time when many folks are troubled by a shift toward deceptively smaller products in categories such as snack foods, the result of what’s known as shrinkflation. “Some companies are trying to pull a fast one by shrinking the products little by little and hoping you won’t notice,” said President Biden last month.

But there’s no such problem when it comes to, say, TV screens. They’ve grown steadily in recent years – from roughly 55 inches, measured diagonally, to 98 inches. Samsung offers a version it calls The Wall, which measures 292 inches, making it the largest TV on the retail market.

Being a golfer I was intrigued by a club I saw on Amazon named the Sooolong, with the “biggest, baddest driver head on the planet.” It’s listed at 750cc’s, which, for the record, is about 60 percent larger than USGA rules permit.

The rest of the world has long scoffed at the way we Americans favor bigness – from our 10-gallon hats to our Big Gulp sodas.

That brings us back to McDonald’s, which recently offered a Double Big Mac sandwich, consisting of one-and-a-half buns surrounding four beef patties. “The opportunity is significant” said Mr. Borden, for a “large, more satiating type burger.”

Satiate is an interesting choice of words to describe the trend. The dictionary defines it as “gorge, overfeed, sicken and nauseate,” which are really big matters, to say the least.

Copyright 2024 Peter Funt distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Peter Funt’s latest book is “Playing POTUS: The Power of America’s Acting Presidents,” about comedians who impersonated presidents.