What are the benefits of fast food advertising?

One of the original purposes, and hence benefits, of a fast food chain restaurant was that it would provide a consistent dining experience across the entire chain. If you ate a McDonald's hamburger in New York, and later went to a McDonald's restaurant in Idaho when you were traveling on business, that Idaho hamburger would taste exactly the same as the New York one. Even if you were in a strange environment, at least your food would still be familiar to you-a "taste of home," if you will.

The food didn't necessarily have to be very good-and it often is not, to this day. But it had to be consistent. And that consistency has only improved with the advent of modern mass production techniques.