Bijou de famille : le Mac Ultra.

Declassified documents : CIA dabbled in psychedelic fast food.

The Central Intelligence Agency acknowledged a top-secret project with McDonald's in the '60s as part of the release of its 'Family Jewels' documents summarizing past extralegal activities. The goal of the project, code-named MCULTRA, was to develop a psychologically devastating hamburger for the fast food chain.

"The thinking at that time was: 'The road to the minds of the populace is through their stomachs,'" said an anonymous source who claims to have worked on the project. "Keep in mind it was a very turbulent time when we were developing this stuff. Our society was under threat from free love, nonviolence, promiscuity, racial equality, and electronically amplified music.

"You have to -- our methods may look unethical when not viewed against the dangers. Oh, and there was the risk of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Can you put that first in the list? That was supposed to be the justification for all this authoritarian government skulduggery."

The MCULTRA project was occurring at a time when the CIA was exploring multiple avenues for maintaining the upper hand against enemies both external and internal. The agency's interests included psychotropic drugs, mind control, mobsters, ray guns and numerous rejected plot elements for conspiracy movies.

While ultimately abandoned, MCULTRA laid the groundwork for approaches McDonald's applied to great effect in formulating its consumable products and marketing its image.
"If it had worked out, we would have marketed this hamburger as 'The McUltra' and used the slogan 'I'm losin' it!' to promote it," says Warren Thenceright, a former member of the McDonald's product strategy department. "Still, we had those lab rats doing almost anything to get a McUltra. Oh, the profit potential of that one...

"It wasn't a total loss. CIA research was instrumental in identifying ingredients with powerful neurochemical effects despite minimal nutritional value which we were able to use in other menu items."

Several morbidly obese conspiracy theorists maintain the CIA-McDonald's alliance was never completely severed.

"It's obvious McDonald's remains a CIA cover operation," Brenda Dally tells Brainsnap. "You've got 30,000 locations in 119 countries. You're serving, like, 50 million people daily. How could a restaurant build an empire like that without secret mind-altering food additives? And how could a government agency with global aspirations like the CIA not salivate at access like that?"

Source : Brainsnap (Byron Kent, 2 Juillet 2007).