FARK.com: (6873813) Seven fast food items: What they advertise vs. What you really get

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		Seven fast food items: What they advertise vs. What you really get (buzzfeed.com)		139
		More: Fail, Ronald McDonald, food stylists

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10179 clicks; posted to Business » on 12 Jan 2012 at 11:24 AM | Favorite | share:

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Frederick

2012-01-12 02:42:02 AM

I usually go for the fish....I suspect it would hold up better compared to the advertising.

Wife worked for Mc D's....was in local commercials...you dont even want to know how they make the food look the way it does in adverts. In fact it's not always food.

Principal Clarinet

2012-01-12 02:48:12 AM

Frederick: you dont even want to know how they make the food look the way it does in adverts. In fact it's not always food.

Curious to know the behind the scenes tricks they use. Please tell ...

Petit_Merdeux

2012-01-12 03:03:26 AM

Frederick: In fact it's not always food.

Crisco and shaving cream instead of ice cream and whipped cream & stuff like that?

I thought it was pretty well known that they did that. Real food doesn't do well in the hot lights of the photo studio.

doglover

2012-01-12 03:06:53 AM

Frederick: I usually go for the fish....I suspect it would hold up better compared to the advertising.

Wife worked for Mc D's....was in local commercials...you dont even want to know how they make the food look the way it does in adverts. In fact it's not always food.

Lesse, we've got the allusion to indirect expert knowledge from a trustworthy source thus shielding the commenter from direct questioning, the unsupported and fantastical claim with no details at all designed to evoke envy, the emotional plea is tied in there as well, and the unwitting show of total ignorance of several entire professional fields by the commenter himself for not knowing how a photography studio even works.

This ladies and gentlemen is how you troll. 7/10. Coulda been tighter.

Bathia_Mapes

2012-01-12 03:35:34 AM

Feels your pain

Frederick

2012-01-12 04:10:20 AM

doglover: Frederick: I usually go for the fish....I suspect it would hold up better compared to the advertising.

Wife worked for Mc D's....was in local commercials...you dont even want to know how they make the food look the way it does in adverts. In fact it's not always food.

Lesse, we've got the allusion to indirect expert knowledge from a trustworthy source thus shielding the commenter from direct questioning, the unsupported and fantastical claim with no details at all designed to evoke envy, the emotional plea is tied in there as well, and the unwitting show of total ignorance of several entire professional fields by the commenter himself for not knowing how a photography studio even works.

This ladies and gentlemen is how you troll. 7/10. Coulda been tighter.

A lot of it was plastic; the veggies and fries. The bun/bread was real. The meat was dog food. And all of it was brushed with Vaseline. There is more but she's asleep atm. Didnt really think anyone would ask...was kind of a throw-away comment.

\kinda seems anti-climatic now
\\I would recommend the filet-o-fish

CPT Ethanolic

2012-01-12 05:11:26 AM

doglover

2012-01-12 05:37:07 AM

Frederick: Didnt really think anyone would ask...was kind of a throw-away comment.

I was just joshin'

But yeah, 99% of what you see in ads is fake and the other 1% isn't real.

I'd like to call everyone's attention to Canada's "Big Tasty" though. It looks almost like the ad and it's farkin' the BEST food from McDonald's I've had in any country. Seriously better than even fresh nuggets with honey.

I wish the UN would get off it's fat ass and stop writing toilet paper treaties with known liars and cheats that get broken as soon as they're signed and do something useful: namely making it illegal for a sandwich as good as the Big Tasty to be kept exclusive to one country. Then we can go back to nuclear non-proliferation.

AbbeySomeone

2012-01-12 05:46:06 AM

Hey Frederick, what breed is the dog in your profile? It's hard to tell from the photo angle.

thismomentinblackhistory

2012-01-12 09:38:26 AM

Greenlighting shiat that is regularly posted in every fast food thread?

Mugato

2012-01-12 09:50:51 AM

I'd like for them to do that with the Double Down since the "what they advertise" column makes me want to vomit.

Diogenes

2012-01-12 09:54:11 AM

This is explosive! How have they gotten away with this fraud for so long! Someone call the Better Business Bureau or the feds or something, stat!

jpallan

2012-01-12 09:58:24 AM

I like the "burnt piece of paper endorsement" of the McDonald's Big and Tasty burger at the end. It really is a pretty random chance on what you get, except that it's guaranteed it won't look like the photos.

brap

2012-01-12 10:08:36 AM

I had a girlfriend in college that got an odd summer gig as a commercial food stylist/dresser. She had some pretty fantastic stories about actors biting in to lovely prop burgers and having to spit them out in disgust as they were basically altered to the point where they had next to nothing to do with actual food.

Apparently half the "food" was basically globs of shoe polish, glycerine, and hairspray held together with toothpicks.

Starryeyes

2012-01-12 10:12:17 AM

Ice cream is usually mashed potatoes, and water condensation on drinks is glycerine because it beads up more nicely.

thismomentinblackhistory

2012-01-12 10:14:34 AM

Starryeyes: Ice cream is usually mashed potatoes, and water condensation on drinks is glycerine because it beads up more nicely.

Also, hot food in commercials is usually extremely cold (for the "steam").

Rapmaster2000

2012-01-12 10:15:20 AM

Yeah and Axe promises that you'll be neck deep in pussy. In reality, you're just getting bumped around by a bunch of stankass guidos in some shiatty suburban club.

Adolf Oliver Nipples

2012-01-12 10:18:11 AM

On the rare occasions I get a Big Mac (like last night) they look very good, much better than the one in the article.

Anyway, puffery is a common aspect to advertising, and as long as they provide what they're advertising it scarcely matters what it looks like. You get every component they say you do and roughly in the volumes that they promise (give or take a few fractions of an ounce).

For that matter, you should be looking at the road instead of your food. Yes, I called you out. Yes, you, typical fast-food eater.

thismomentinblackhistory

2012-01-12 10:21:57 AM

Eddie Adams from Torrance

2012-01-12 10:24:53 AM

Frederick:
\\I would recommend the filet-o-fish

I had the lasagna.

I_C_Weener

2012-01-12 10:28:14 AM

At Burger King, you can have it your way...and then smashed flat.

brigid_fitch

2012-01-12 10:34:40 AM

I just want to know where you can still get a Big N Tasty in America! i LOVED those things! Yeah, it may seem gimmicky--Ooo, hot on one side, cold on the other!--but that's only if you've grown accustomed to wilty lettuce & warm mayo. I like mine crispy cold, thanks.

thismomentinblackhistory

2012-01-12 10:40:14 AM

brigid_fitch: I just want to know where you can still get a Big N Tasty in America! i LOVED those things! Yeah, it may seem gimmicky--Ooo, hot on one side, cold on the other!--but that's only if you've grown accustomed to wilty lettuce & warm mayo. I like mine crispy cold, thanks.

You mean the McDLT?

stpauler

2012-01-12 10:44:42 AM

doglover: I'd like to call everyone's attention to Canada's "Big Tasty" though. It looks almost like the ad and it's farkin' the BEST food from McDonald's I've had in any country. Seriously better than even fresh nuggets with honey.
.

You, kind sir, must have never supped on the glory that is the Chicken Maharaja Mac.

thismomentinblackhistory

2012-01-12 10:50:59 AM

stpauler: doglover: I'd like to call everyone's attention to Canada's "Big Tasty" though. It looks almost like the ad and it's farkin' the BEST food from McDonald's I've had in any country. Seriously better than even fresh nuggets with honey.
.

You, kind sir, must have never supped on the glory that is the Chicken Maharaja Mac.
[ts4.mm.bing.net image 300x300]

I would eat this instead:

foodnetworkhumor.com

brigid_fitch

2012-01-12 11:04:23 AM

thismomentinblackhistory: brigid_fitch: I just want to know where you can still get a Big N Tasty in America! i LOVED those things! Yeah, it may seem gimmicky--Ooo, hot on one side, cold on the other!--but that's only if you've grown accustomed to wilty lettuce & warm mayo. I like mine crispy cold, thanks.

You mean the McDLT?

Wow, yes I did. I'll have to look into this Big N Tasty, then. It looks the same as a McDLT.

/I don't go to McDonald's much

ultraholland

2012-01-12 11:16:52 AM

D-fens.

TheSup3rN0va

2012-01-12 11:40:34 AM

Bookmarked - next time I'm hungry before lunch time, I'll just run through these pictures. Best appetite killer I've found yet.

mainsail

2012-01-12 11:43:00 AM

You think this is unappetizing, think about what they have to do with skin mags...

AntonChigger

2012-01-12 11:43:51 AM

I'll be honest, in all the times I've been to fast food joints I've hardly ever gotten a burger or other food that is half as smashed or ugly as the ones presented here. Maybe I'm just lucky.

baorao

2012-01-12 11:45:34 AM

"when I asked for burgers built exactly as big as the ones in the ads"

lol.

I bet that request went over really well.

UNAUTHORIZED FINGER

2012-01-12 11:46:33 AM

We have a McDonalds inside our WalMart in Kingman Arizona. While Christmas shopping, I got my bi-annual craving for a Big Mac.I bought two, and took them out to my truck to eat. I had to walk all the way from the end of the parking lot back to the store to tell them that they had made The Best Looking Big Mac Ever! It looked exactly as advertised. Seriously they must have a sandwich cosmetologist working for them. Either that, or I got a Big Mac made on a Friday. So of course, that McDonalds is closing.

King Something

2012-01-12 11:47:39 AM

Drink! (new window)

madcan34

2012-01-12 11:49:54 AM

Principal Clarinet: Frederick: you dont even want to know how they make the food look the way it does in adverts. In fact it's not always food.

Curious to know the behind the scenes tricks they use. Please tell ...

There are all kinds of food styling tricks that are incorporated but one rule (law actually) that must always be (loosely) followed is that the food that is being advertised must be real.

The hamburger patties in the McDonald's shot must be real along with the lettuce, tomatoes and cheese but the condiments themselves need not be. A lot of the burger shots will have little cardboard risers placed between each item (patty, lettuce, onion, tomatoes) to maximize look and freshness.

You can advertise a steak but nowhere does it say that steak has to be cooked. One common trick is to simply sear the outside with a blow torch then paint on grill marks with shoe polish. The meat is then covered with (among other things) glycerine to keep a sheen on it.

Hot food usually isn't hot, the food you see that show steam rising off of it is either blasted with a steam iron and quickly photographed or has a narrow tray of water placed in behind it and the smoke pellets are used. A food stylist can actually make somewhere between $750 - $1000 a day simply styling food. The shot that you see on the box cover or can cover or magazine page can take days to perfect and that's before it goes into post production.

Food and beverage photography can be quite lucrative if you can get yourself established but the first rule on the set of food photography is "don't eat the food". Mainly because you'll get sick if you do.

halfof33

2012-01-12 11:52:03 AM

Aren't the Jack in the Box tacos put in the deep fryer?

When the wife was training for the triatholon (and eating about 10,000 calories a day) she would eat 8 of those things.

airsupport

2012-01-12 11:52:10 AM

baorao: "when I asked for burgers built exactly as big as the ones in the ads"

lol.

I bet that request went over really well.

Kisha, we got some honkey from corporate up here at my register. Tell Bill to stop smokin' weed in the walk-in.

jst3p

2012-01-12 11:52:15 AM

This premise is so old it could vote.

Klopfer

2012-01-12 11:52:36 AM

How they do it (for real) (pops)

LesserEvil

2012-01-12 11:54:03 AM

This is why when I want fast food burgers, I go to Rallys/Checkers.

Even their little burgers actually look like how they are advertised, and unlike supposedly premium burgers like McDonald's "Angus" burgers, even the cheapest Rallys burgers are damn tasty.

FTW!!

AUAIOMRN

2012-01-12 11:54:24 AM

Damn those are some sad looking Whoppers.

Shaggy_C

2012-01-12 11:59:30 AM

Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to fast food?

Whatthefark

2012-01-12 11:59:43 AM

Taco Bell:

What they advertise:

img694.imageshack.us

What you get:

img195.imageshack.us

Carth

2012-01-12 12:00:52 PM

Fast food is false advertising. Just because you can eat something doesn't make it real food.

groppet

2012-01-12 12:02:09 PM

I remember back in school I was taking a class in advertising. One day we had a guy come in that made food look "TV ready". A lot of the stuf he told us people have mentioned here. The one thing that stuck with me was how he describe how they would film a cereal commercial. They would take 20-30 boxes of cereal and find the most perfect flakes, rasins, marshmellows, granola, whatever. And they would use those to make the perfect bowl. The one thing that was weird was how they would use elmers glue as a milk substitute. It beaded up on the flakes better. They would usually use that on the last shot where they showed the box and the cereal.

AntonChigger

2012-01-12 12:03:53 PM

Shaggy_C: Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to fast food?

I bet because its cheap, easy, convenient, and even though you turn up your "cultured" nose at it, often damn tasty.

/Do my best to limit my fast food intake
//Its a good thing Six Dollar Western Bacon Cheeseburgers don't exist in Indiana

jst3p

2012-01-12 12:08:11 PM

Shaggy_C: Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to fast food?

Oh, this guy? You are so edgy and cool!

Carth

2012-01-12 12:09:30 PM

AntonChigger: Shaggy_C: Why would anyone willingly subject themselves to fast food?

I bet because its cheap, easy, convenient, and even though you turn up your "cultured" nose at it, often damn tasty.

/Do my best to limit my fast food intake
//Its a good thing Six Dollar Western Bacon Cheeseburgers don't exist in Indiana

Buy a slower cooker. The food is cheaper, healthier and more convenient.

Mugato

2012-01-12 12:09:37 PM

groppet: One day we had a guy come in that made food look "TV ready".

....and they found him in a seedy motel room having hung himself with his own shoelaces, right? Please?

FrancoFile

2012-01-12 12:13:24 PM

I've usually found Wendy's burgers to look much closer to the advertised ideal than McDonalds.

mcreadyblue

2012-01-12 12:13:35 PM

The Jack-n-Box tacos are deep fried. No way they ever look like the advert.

/no meat in them either

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