"Happy Meals" in the Starship Enterprise: interpreting a moral geography of health care consumption

This paper extends earlier explorations of the use of metaphor in the marke ting of the Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, by exami ning controversy surrounding the opening of an in-hospital McDonalds first- food outlet, The golden arches have become a key element of many childrens urban geographies and a potent symbol of the corporate: colonisation of the New Zealand landscape. In 1997 a minor moral panic ensued when a proposal was unveiled to open a McDonald's restaurant within the Starship. Data coll ected from media coverage, advertising and interviews with hospital managem ent are analysed to interpret competing discourses around the issue of fast Food within a health care setting. We contend that the introduction of a M cDonald's Franchise has become the hospital's ultimate placial icon, adding ambivalence to the moral geography of health care consumption. We conclude that arguments concerning the unhealthy nature of McDonald's food obscure deeper discourses surrounding the unpalatable character of the health refor ms, and a perceived 'Americanisation' of health carl in New Zealand. (C) 20 00 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.