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Dario D at Alphalia has been working on a project comparing fast food items to their real-life counterparts. It’s been done before, but his write-ups and process is well worth the read.
Submitted by: Unknown
Via: Alphalia
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Anyone who believes advertising should be committed to a home for the mentally incompetent.
here here
Every four years, we elect such people to such places.
Because we we’re only give who they wanted to have elected…
Chinatown NYC big macs look like the ads.
Yikes. This is far from what I’m used to here in Norway. It would probably be considered as false advertising too.
Very nice report and very funny too
Definitely worth reading:) Thanks for sharing!
Might depend on where you live and who did it. Because our Whoppers aren’t exactly as advertised, but they are way closer to it than the right one that looks like it’s been smashed and emptied before photo…
Taco Bell is random though, sometimes they are perfect. Usually they aren’t.
What god-like taco bell do you visit that actually puts that much meat on their tacos any of the time?
Seriously that’s 5-7 actual tacos worth of meat in the advertised taco
My food never looks quite as good as the advertisement, but never as bad as what’s on the right either. As long as it tastes good and gets to your mouth, who cares?
Looks like McD actually wins this one.
Yes. And that is pretty sad.
What’s ALSO said is that the pathetic McDonald’s burger is actually the most appetizing, or least unappetizing, option of all of those things.
When my husband was a kid he argued with the counter people at McD that his Big Mac didn’t look like the one on the menu board! Didn’t get anywhere with that : )
The Whoppers from BK Japan do may not look quite as huge as the ads, but they look a whole hell of a lot better than that sad thing.
Yeah, I take advantage of $1.99 Whopper Wednesdays at Burger King here in Canada, and I have to say their Whoppers look a heck of a lot better than the example in the photo above. Not as good as the advertisement, but not all that far off.
I always order mine with extra lettuce, extra tomato and extra onion, and they put it on for free! Try doing that at Mickey D’s.
the only thing they would charge extra for is the extra tomato ($0.30) the rest would be free
mcdonalds never wins anything… they have the worst food in the world… i swear on my life id rather eat a piece of poop than ANYTHING from mcdonalds
The big Mc’s look exactly like the ads over here in holland.
do americans just have constant problems with their fast food? In nz yeah it may not be perfect but it’s pretty close to the ads, what we get served.
Every time I go to order from any of these places (which is rarely anymore), the employees are too busy playing grab as.s with each other to get my order right, let alone make my food look half way edible. You don’t dare return anything for fear of spit-laden food in return.
lol are they getting paid to breed or flip burgers? fail. i suppose there has to be some kind of stimulation to get them through the day… have you ever seen the managers at some of these place, the HUGE lady with the smei-mustache and the cokebotlle glass’s, when she smiles shes got a snaggel tooth and hold herself waaay to high in regard, like the fastfood hiter to facist nazi chain of command, bioling frys in the deep fryer and burgers in the.. okay ive wastes waaay too much time writing this, lol, nevermind, you get the picture
FAIL. …dario d has a great blog tho, does an accurate job at portraying the deceiving portions of advertising and actuality in regards to fast food. mmm *drool* getting less then i imagined, but more when i read this report 
now i know better hehe
It’s the lack of work ethic that scares me. They’re still being paid to do a job. The least they can do is not make my sandwich look like it was assembled from across the room with a slingshot. I found cheese on the TOP of the cardboard burger container once. Not even on the sandwich. Hanging halfway out of the box. How does that even happen and no one notice it before delivering it to the customer?!
Tricks to make the burger look good?
Use layers of carboard to firm it up
Toothpicks to make it stand better
Extra sesame seeds glued on
Grill one side of the burger only
Paint it with shoe-polish for juicy look
Grill marks added with red-hot skewer
Spray lettuce and tomato with glycerine
Replace mayonnaise with oil
For TV, use a hot-air gun to get the cheese to droop on command
YOU try making food look non-disgusting under TV lights without those kinds of tricks.
You are aware that even hum beings have to wear layers of makeup just to look normal on TV?
*human
To get the steam coming off food in ads, they dip a tampon in water the throw it in the microwave. They place it behind the food, and you have lovely steaming food.
easily one of the best blogs I have seen on here, by far. fascinating.
I actually have a Taco Bell that makes them look much closer tot he advertised one. Then again this is the same place that makes all their food great so im not surprised. Its sad we live in a world were people who dont care about their jobs are employed by businesses who only care about raking in money, the quality of our food is truly horrifying and its a rare occurrence when you can find a place that takes pride in their work, much less a fast food place.
You know, I get so sick of hearing people complaining about how “ugly” fast food looks. Dosen’t it still taste like Big Mac should? Are you *not* going to eat it because it dosen’t look pretty? Aren’t you going to buy the same damn thing next week? Then stop being such a whiny baby!
You’re paying three freakin’ dollars, for pete’s sake! Do you really expect the 17 year-old grill cook getting $8 an hour, to have a Masters Degree in the Culinary Arts? Seriously, stfu, and eat your cheesburger!
Thank you Sarah! My words exactly!!
My personal complaints aren’t that I’m paying three bucks for a teen to flip burgers. Usually if I go for fast food, the ad made me hungry and made me want that juicy Whopper with fresh onions and crisp lettuce. So I’d be willing to pay a few bucks to get it, but when i give the cashier six bucks, I get a soggy burger that’s made me lose my appetite and more often than not, the fries are undercooked. Do I know what the burger looks like? Of course, but the ad made me want it right that moment and that’s pretty much how the human brain functions, and why advertisements are so effective.
This is an issue between marketing and the people in charge of what the food itself looks like, and generally that’s based on the area. The advertisements did their job in making their food look like it’s the best thing you’ve eaten all week, but the rest of the company and the branches aren’t required to live up to more than, “Make sure it’s edible.” I think Supersize Me covered how several of the burgers looked different in different cities. (Actually the Taco Bell and Burger King ads look way too fake already but that’s a totally different point.)
And I haven’t seen somebody younger than 25 working at McDonalds in a good six years. Maybe it’s just the area, but still, the employees have nothing to do with it.
My BK makes whoppers that are near perfect to the pictures.
My BK burgers are almost always flat. It’s like they make it nice, and then squish it purposely, I the paper they wrap it in is covered in oozed out ketchup and mustard. It makes me sad.
That’s one nasty-looking taco. Least where I am, the lettuce and cheese is a little more separate, and you can still see the meat. Same with Burger King, not quite as bad, but still nothing like the ads and pretty meh in taste.
BigMacs can never be saved though, tastes like dumpster.
This does not just apply to food-
Think about it.
Dunno where you’re getting yours but my big macs look just like that picture (first one) and my whoppers don’t look nearly as crappy as that….maybe it’s an Australia thing….slightly ironic that we make food from american franchises better than they do
You know I’ve never ONCE gotten a Whopper that looked that bad. They look pretty good.
oooooollllllllllldddddddddd
I’ve bee to quite a few Burger Kings in my day, and I’ve never had a Whopper that looked that awful. Taco Bell and McDonalds… yeah, that’s pretty accurate.
But they taste good, so what do I care?
They’ll look like crap when they get through your digestive system, anyway, so why does it matter?
It’s plump, juicy, three inches thick. Look at this sorry, miserable, squashed thing. Can anybody tell me what’s wrong with this picture?
And, of course, The Big & Tasty from McDonald’s is the only burger in the link to actually be discontinued.