Crecia C. Swaim
Background
QUICK is the only European fast food hamburger chain restaurant operating on an international level. (12) The first two QUICK restaurants opened in Schoten and Waterloo, Belgium, in 1971; in 1978 the first franchise opened in Brussels. The first French location opened in Aix-en-Provence in 1980, and on the island of La Réunion in 2001. In 2007-2008, QUICK started a small-scale expansion effort with locations opening in Algeria, Russia, Catalonia, and New Caledonia, and a franchise agreement established in 2009 in the French West Indies. QUICK is the number one fast food hamburger chain in Belgium and Luxembourg, and number two in France.
The website for QUICK is: http://www.quick.fr/. Their current catchphrase is Nous, c'est le gout. (QUICK, the taste, or We are the taste.)
Commercial-Based Activities
The following are some commercial links that can be used to show students a variety of young people in France, in order to allow them to draw many similarities while still exploring any differences they notice.
The first is from 2007 and shows people lining up in the streets as if waiting for a rock star. The mob soon busts through the doors of Quick, holding a young man eating a burger above their heads. This is the "Méga Giant Tour" of three méga giant burgers being offered for a limited time only. I think one of the burgers will especially draw the attention of students; it is called the Xtralong Giant and is three patties laid across a sub roll. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr3nUTvfEEs&feature=related.
Next is an ad from 2009 for the Googrill, a burger whose name plays on the sound of the word go—t in the Quick catchphrase, c'est nous, le gout. The rate of speech is very fast, with slang (argot in French) being used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czlR9cezZaM&feature=related.
From 2007, this commercial shows collectible mugs from the American television series "Friends" being offered on promotion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22UM8NXqGIs&feature=related.
The following is an older commercial from 1993 for Chicken Dips, featuring cartoon animals: http://www.ina.fr/pub/societes-de-service/video/PUB3774399104/quick-hamburger-restaurant-chicken-dips-fast-food.fr.html.
See Classroom Activity 2 for an activity comparing the kid's meals from Quick and KFC.
