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Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

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Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#61

Post by excuse-me »

oz wrote: post #52
raganwald wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand there are specific laws about what they can and cannot show in a food ad in Ontario and/or Canada. They can do their own preparation, but I believe the ingredients must be identical to the ones in the actual product. So it must be an actual beef patty, and the ketchup and mustard can be squirted on carefully, but they have to be real ketchup and mustard.

A well-known food celebrity in Jamaica told me once that most ice-cream ads actually use mashed potatoes. I didn't know enough to ask her if that was a local or international practice.

They also use plastic ice cubes so you have time to setup a shot and there is a whole market in plastic food, see this ad studio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKC6j7pW6T0

But there is a difference between just food in a photo-shoot where you can use anything and a shot of the actual product in an ad which must obey certain rules in most countries

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#62

Post by philjohn »

ShabbyDoo wrote: post #31

I once saw a TV segment showing some starlet being photographed for a print clothing ad campaign. The stylist used metal clips (the sort one can buy at an office supply store for holding 50 sheets of paper together) to tighten the garment around her torso. From the front, the dress looked like it fit her perfectly. However, the back exposed a bunch of black metal clips holding back fabric. How does such an ad compare…

Not sure about in the US, but in the UK you often see store mannequins "dressed" the same way.

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#63

Post by excuse-me »

excuse-me wrote: post #40
raganwald wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand there are specific laws about what they can and cannot show in a food ad in Ontario and/or Canada. They can do their own preparation, but I believe the ingredients must be identical to the ones in the actual product. So it must be an actual beef patty, and the ketchup and mustard can be squirted on carefully, but they have to be real ketchup and mustard.

Same in europe - the advertising standards agencies are very strict that it must be the exact product. There is a famous case of an ad for Martini where, because of the rules, it had to be the real product that the actors were drinking! Which lead to a catch-22 after a few takes - the more mistakes they made, the more they had to drink and the more mistakes they made.....

Found them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirMZGL-0mQ

Leonard Rossiter is a famous British actor but had a reputation for being difficult to work with and a real perfectionist.

Joan Collins said in an interview that he kept messing up the take after each drink and she wasn't sure if he was doing it deliberately - but they ended up very drunk at the end.

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#64

Post by Retric »

gilrain wrote: post #32
tptacek wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The subtext I'm communicating is, "if I was in the food marketing industry, I sure would want to communicate to the world that I was legally obligated to adhere to some strict code of conduct". It's a credibility booster. So I'm going a step further and seeing if anyone can use an advanced legal tool like Google or Wikipedia to find the place that says McDonalds must-absolutely-must use real pickles or exactly the re…

"So I'm going a step further and seeing if anyone can use an advanced legal tool like Google or Wikipedia to find the place" I tried that, of course, and didn't find a proper law reference in the amount of time I dedicated to the task. I'll have leave it up to you to satisfy your curiosity from here. Please do post if/when you find it!

It get's back to case law. But false advertising is a

'means of advertisement other than labeling, which is misleading in a material respect; and in determining whether an advertisement is misleading, there shall be taken into account (among other things) not only representations made or suggested by statement, word, design, device, sound, or any combination thereof, but also the extent to which the advertisement fails to reveal facts material in the light of such representations or material with respect to consequences which may result from the use of the commodity to which the advertisement relates under the conditions prescribed in said advertisement, or under such conditions as are customary or usual.

The net result of this basically means if your selling a burger, you must show a picture of a burger using the materials you use to make a burger. But, you don't need to use the same methods.

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#65

Post by sophacles »

xenophanes wrote: post #39
ryanwhitney wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You claim they responded transparently and without sugar coating anything. So what was the answer to the original question? Why does the ad burger patty appear thicker and larger? Edit: So many answers talking about how they might make a quarter pound patty look larger. Anyone can do that. I was addressing the fact that the video in no way covers why they look larger in advertisements. Sidestepping the important ques…

From the video: 1) they stack up all pickles/onions/etc in the front for ads. 2) the real burger goes in a box and the steam makes the bun shrink a little Also, they didn't say it but they showed it: The burger is cooked differently for the ad. I got the impression they were just grilling it to make it look good but with minimal cooking (I wonder if it's even safe to eat the ad one). If you've ever cooked a burger, y…

Further, the burger press used in store, is usually pushed on a bit by the employees to cook the burger faster, but also flattening it a bit, and getting rid of some more juices that make up volume.

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#66

Post by ccoggins »

ryanwhitney wrote: post #49
reledi wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That doesn't address the fact that a stylist cooked it on a panini grill for an hour looking the perfect brown, leading to a thicker-width burger which indeed makes their advertisements a lie. The patties are usually undercooked as well for the photo shoots, so the meat doesn't shrink as much.

Interesting to know, but that doesn't make it any less of a lie to show the larger patty.

I would have to disagree. I don't think they ever make claims about the amount of space the burger takes up. They claim it's a 1/4 lb burger. How thick it is seems irrelevant as long as they started out with a 1/4 lb of meat.

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#67

Post by sophacles »

tptacek wrote: post #4

This is clever (if cynical) marketing from McDonalds Canada: take one of the oldest knocks against large-scale fast food (that's it's marketed dishonestly) and turn it into a product benefit: "it's ugly because we took the original product, which is beautiful, and then uglified it to make it taste better". One thing that makes this piece cynical is that the integrity of fast food promo graphics is not a new or pressi…

It's not like this is the first time McDonald's has openly addressed this either. I remember seeing a bit on this process with cooperation from the company when I was a kid (say 20 years ago). The technique hasn't changed at all (it's basically the same clip really, less photoshop more hand touchup in the old school one being the prime differences)

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#68

Post by nailer »

ryanwhitney wrote: post #26
eykanal wrote: post #21

I'll disagree slightly with tptacek... this is a genius piece of marketing by McDonalds. It does everything that we routinely see listed on this very site as Best Practices™: - Respond to customer feedback in a friendly and highly transparent manner. - Don't sugarcoat things that "everyone knows but no one admits"; they could have avoided showing the graphic artist photoshopping the burger, but everyone knows that th…

You claim they responded transparently and without sugar coating anything. So what was the answer to the original question? Why does the ad burger patty appear thicker and larger? Edit: So many answers talking about how they might make a quarter pound patty look larger. Anyone can do that. I was addressing the fact that the video in no way covers why they look larger in advertisements. Sidestepping the important ques…

It's shown diagonally. Watch the video, the presenter mentions this.

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#69

Post by pimeys »

wildmXranat wrote: post #43

Extremely demanding schedule of lately has forced me to sacrifice on the quality of my daily food intake, where I snack occasionally on fast food items so here are my thoughts: Biggest issue with fast food is sort of linked to the "uglification for the sake of taste", but let's get one thing straight: fast food quality and taste is damn bad. So that excuse is out the window. I've tried everything on McD's menu includ…

I don't even understand why people in USA go to McDonalds etc. I mean, if you want good burgers, USA is the paradise for them. E.g. while visiting Berkeley, one random burger joint called Bongo Burger was better than any burger I've eaten in Europe.

I don't know how is it in smaller cities, but I would guess an American should know what's a good burger and what's complete rubbish.

Re: Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad

#70

Post by jellicle »

oz wrote: post #52
raganwald wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand there are specific laws about what they can and cannot show in a food ad in Ontario and/or Canada. They can do their own preparation, but I believe the ingredients must be identical to the ones in the actual product. So it must be an actual beef patty, and the ketchup and mustard can be squirted on carefully, but they have to be real ketchup and mustard.

A well-known food celebrity in Jamaica told me once that most ice-cream ads actually use mashed potatoes. I didn't know enough to ask her if that was a local or international practice.

If the food is incidental (just in a TV show or something) it's going to be faked stuff, sprayed with lacquer, for the lights.

If the food is the product being advertised, it must be real.

There's probably a really interesting product placement grey line where the advertiser can argue that placement of a beautiful, fake burger in a scene should not be regulated under the "must be real" guidelines.

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