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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

#151
Anecdotal but related: over the last few years I've noticed a trend where I've been appreciating Chipotle more and more, and liking McDonald's less and less. At Chipotle's I can count on getting healthy fresh natural-tasting food fast, clean tables, and lots of good looking women among fellow customers. At McDonald's I increasingly experienced unhealthy stale, artificial/chemical-tasting food (sometimes fast, sometimes slow), with dirty tables, dirty drink stand areas, dirty bathrooms, sometimes no mirrors, flies common, and lots of fat or ugly women, and slobs of all genders/ages in general. And the price of a meal is roughly the same, order of magnitude-wise. And because of the indoor playground, more frequent cases of kid's screaming or being obnoxious -- though it sometimes happens at Chipotle too, just not as much. Oh and the music would be better at Chipotle too.

So it really became a no-brainer for me which to choose whenever I needed a fast meal and didn't want to make something. Chipotle isn't perfect (I've identified about 4 things they could do better, in my book) but they've come closer to perfect, in the fast food space, than any other business I've seen. I'm glad McDonald's is (hopefully) losing in the marketplace and on Wall Street, and Chipotle the opposite. It (should be) all about the customer and the end-user experience, and this should be reflected in revenue and stock price trends, in a fair system.

I've never expected their burgers to match their ads, but I do expect them to taste good, and not provide a disgusting dining room experience. Life's too short for otherwise.

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

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I don't believe most of the urban legends about McDonalds, and there are things they do that I can even respect (for instance, their contribution to french fry science [really], or their [very, very, very, very] gradual adoption of humane farming guidelines.) But make no mistake that McDonalds is a business that is, if not as harmful as Philip Morris, gradable on the same scale. For the most part it's a com…

Can't we say the same things about just about any business? > "but there's a difference between an occasional indulgence" Indeed... > "and the business model that depends utterly on persuading the most persuadable people to harm themselves, for no other reason that they were persuadable" You've lost me. You compare McDonald's to Philip Morris - even though one produces a highly addictive substance and the other produ…

The burgers are addictive, man. The craving, the feeling of being overcome by the desire to consume when you get one, the shitty feeling you get afterwards and yet still continue to eat it - that's addiction, bro.

And like the other guy said - it's backed up by science too. The insane amounts of fat, salt, and sugar spike the reward processors in the brain WAY past what they're built for. They are hacking you.

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

#153
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…

It's cool but still no sale.

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

#154
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…

It's cool but still no sale.

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

#155
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal qualm with McDonald's lies in its nutritional and health values. Surprisingly, they have adapted their products to suit popular opinion (salads, low-fat items, etc...). I think McDonald's won't go anywhere even if humanity IS faced with a food crisis, since it's easy to make and cheap. I totally agree about advertising exposing a human's weakness. Regarding BMW, I know someone who purchased a BMW just to…

Regarding BMW, I know someone who purchased a BMW just to go to auto club meets and meet new people. I have to admit, that is a new one. Did he purchase an M5 or other super expensive/powerful BMW to go to auto club meets? Or other model? In some areas of the USA, a 3/5/7 series BMW is a run of the mill luxury car.

5 and 7 series are legit. 3 series are for people who get their first six figure job, and college kids of well-off parents.

In San Francisco, every 10th car is a 3 series. I wish I was joking.

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

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last I checked, burgers are non-addictive. "A growing body of medical research at leading universities and government laboratories suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks made by the likes of PepsiCo Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs. “The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it,” said…

The fries are probably more perilous (unfortunately, also the one thing they do really well). The full-sugar soda is probably just straight-up toxic.

Toxically delicious!

Surprisingly, Sweet Tea (otherwise known as would-you-like-some-water-with-your-sugar in the south) has about 15 grams less carbs in the large than a Coke. I think I might never order another coke again.

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

#157

It's a great marketing video for McDonalds, but sidesteps the actual question almost entirely. They respond to "why do your burgers look different in commercials?" by answering "here's the process of making a commercial burger." 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 only honest answer to the original question is the obvious one: because their normal burgers look like crap.

I don't know about you, but I buy a hamburger for its taste and satisfaction, not to stare at it.

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

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we say the same things about just about any business? > "but there's a difference between an occasional indulgence" Indeed... > "and the business model that depends utterly on persuading the most persuadable people to harm themselves, for no other reason that they were persuadable" You've lost me. You compare McDonald's to Philip Morris - even though one produces a highly addictive substance and the other produ…

Nobody lives on Ben & Jerry's. Frito Lay is possibly even more morally fraught than McDonalds, since a large part of their business involves marketing themselves into kids lunches. I'm not sure where Campbells comes into this. It's not great soup, but it's soup. Obviously, there are people who think there's nothing wrong with a particularly successful marketing campaign for an unhealthful product. There are plenty of…

The real issue is that individuals lack self control and maintain ignorance, which leads to poor health related decisions. I see where you are coming from, but I insist that people should rely only on themselves in these cases. Placing the blame on businesses or government is particularly irresponsible. Note that I am not insinuating you make these poor health decisions, because clearly you are aware.

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

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we say the same things about just about any business? > "but there's a difference between an occasional indulgence" Indeed... > "and the business model that depends utterly on persuading the most persuadable people to harm themselves, for no other reason that they were persuadable" You've lost me. You compare McDonald's to Philip Morris - even though one produces a highly addictive substance and the other produ…

Nobody lives on Ben & Jerry's. Frito Lay is possibly even more morally fraught than McDonalds, since a large part of their business involves marketing themselves into kids lunches. I'm not sure where Campbells comes into this. It's not great soup, but it's soup. Obviously, there are people who think there's nothing wrong with a particularly successful marketing campaign for an unhealthful product. There are plenty of…

I think what you're trying to illustrate is the systematic risk many of these companies fail to recognize. Or they recognize them and its in the best interest not to do anything about it.

This is the same thing as pointing to the banks for selling CDOs. Risky for the banks? No. Risky for the whole system to collapse? Yes. Since systematic risks are largely not direct risks they never get counted as risks to begin with, and therefore do not impact decision making.

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also their burgers are pretty gross. Some people must think they taste "good enough", given their popularity. Convenience and price obviously play big roles here, but they are also likely choosing McDonalds over other options on at least some basis of taste. > But make no mistake that McDonalds is a business that is, if not as harmful as Philip Morris, gradable on the same scale. For the most part it's a company wh…

In Australia (and Canada for that matter), McDonald's food is far better than it is the the US.

Rubbish. As an Aussie who has tried both, I have not noticed the difference. I deliberately tried the ones in the US to see if they were better, as people had said. They were the same tasteless garbage.
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