niggles Posted June 21, 2012 McDonald's released this image of a Quarter Pounder purchased from a store and one that had been "styled" and "photoshopped". Picture: McDonald's Source: news.com.au IT'S the age-old question of fast food lovers - why does your burger never, ever, look like the one you saw in the ad? In a surprising PR move, McDonald's has attempted to answer the queries of Big Mac fans by revealing the tricks it uses to make its burgers look so appealing in adverts. The fast food giant went behind-the-scenes to show consumers how "food-styling" and "photoshopping" is used to make the product look juicier, bigger and tastier than it really is. A Canadian consumer prompted Maccas HQ to produce the video after sending in the question: "Why does your food look different in the advertising than what’s in the store?" McDonald's marketing director Hope Bagozzi conceded it was a "great question" and one the organisation was often asked. burger Source: news.com.au The video shows Ms Bagozzi purchasing a Quarter Pounder from a Canadian store, before taking it to the company's creative agency to be deconstructed and rebuilt for the photo shoot. Ms Bagozzi then takes the viewer through the various technicians, photographers, image specialists and McDonald's executives who oversee the burger's "photo shoot". The tell-all video has become a viral hit, having been viewed about 1.2 million times since it was Here are six reasons why the burger you are served is almost unrecognisable to the one on the poster: Ketchup, mustard and condiments are applied with surgical precision via a syringe to the edge of the burger. The cheese is gently melted using a blowtorch and heated palette knife to achieve perfect "melted-ness". Ingredients such as pickles and onions are moved to the front of the burger, to avoid being concealed in the middle. The bun is smaller than appears in the ad as it contracts due to "steam in the box". Small inconsistencies such as stray sesame seeds, blemished and crumbs are photo-shopped to perfection. A normal burger is made in one minute, the photo-styled burger takes hours. Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-bars/six-reasons-your-burger-doesnt-look-like-the-ad/story-fn93ypt9-1226404364767#ixzz1yPASPhld Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 POISON!!! Maccas should have an S9 rating on its packaging... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
niggles Posted June 21, 2012 The government should tax it like cigarettes - to maintain credibility. Fat costs us more in healthcare costs than smoke does. Is it about punishing smokers or paying for our healthcare? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 they simply wouldnt exist if people everywhere didnt enjoy it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 they simply wouldnt exist if people everywhere didnt enjoy it People are addicted to it... enjoyment comes from feeding the addiction.... (imo ymmv) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 business wise the've got a great model and a great product, you cant deny their success definatly not the heathiest food going around, i dont think anyone would argue that. also why just target the big guy (all too easy), why not kfc, or streets ice creams, or subway, or cadbury, or allens lollies??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
qualia Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) imo the smell's worse than the look, i feel ill every time i smell hungries or mcdonalds, edit: especially when someone brings it onto the train or something, it seems worse in confined spaces ..... Edited June 21, 2012 by qualia 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 or the whole western diet/lifestyle for that matter Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 maccas does have lovely clean toilets though (usually) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goldtop Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) Its fattening but cmon, who can deny a cheeseburger, every now n then Edited June 21, 2012 by Goldtop Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 People are addicted to it... enjoyment comes from feeding the addiction.... (imo ymmv) people can get addicted to anything in life, doesnt mean it should be regulated free market people 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tonic Posted June 21, 2012 Should issue an MSDS with that crap! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shortly Posted June 21, 2012 people can get addicted to anything in life, doesnt mean it should be regulated free market people I'm not necessarily a great supporter of the free market, however the nonsense we currently suffer where some things are heavily regulated while others enjoy immunity is a farce, we should have either a system of regulation or free market, not this half & half system protecting some & persecuting others. And nope goldtop i haven't touched one of their burgers since Expo88, my kids think that maccas is just a playground 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 @NegativeDave - 'Regulation' - Maybe so, but they seem to regulate the wrong things! So many beneficial herbs are regulated and they're 1000% better than McDonalds... I do believe in freedom of choice so I get ya - but either regulate everything or nothing. It's all about the $ in the end, not your freedom of choice or health. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 dont blame mcdonalds because some things are regulated Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 jez i gotta good view from up on this soapbox 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 Meh - I can't really stand on a soap box - I used to eat the crap 5 times a week for years. I'm a born again non-maccas eater, the sight and smell of it makes me puke now. I ate it once about a month ago and thought i was going to die for 24 hours. You're welcome to it - you can have my fries too, and the delicious pure liquid pig fat shake... YUM! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
niggles Posted June 21, 2012 I agree that the current system of regulation is silly and not balanced or really functional and regulating more things isnt really the answer, however McDonalds uses the same exploitative marketing methods that everyone thought was so disgusting when the smoking companies did it - aim to get people hooked as young as possible to get a lifetimes worth of money out of them. I find it disgusting and offensive to put up with mcdonalds working out of every childrens hospital in the country (last time i checked) watching sick children getting rewarded with that slop blows my mind! Even more so when they throw it up and parents look confused. Anyhow... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PositiveHAL Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) emotive argument, so now marketing is to blame? all marketing is 'exploitative', its how it works however people have the freedom and intelligence to decide what they want to purchase, or feed their kids in this case i agree on the mcdonalds/hospital/charity house thing, its like when bikie groups do 'charity' runs, once again people have the intelligence to see through this bullshit and see things for what they really are. edit: shame on the hospitals for allowing this, they do have bills to pay though Edited June 21, 2012 by NegativeDave Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 Hmm... I'm hearin ya NegativeD, but people aren't fed all the appropriate facts needed to make an informed decision. They're bombarded with advertising, jingles and misinformation. Also, as much as I love to give people the benefit of the doubt, common sense is not very common. You just have to look at the stats of obesity, heart disease and other ailments to see that the vast majority of people aren't making the right decisions... Personally I think it's because they're addicted to the chemicals in the food - so it's not their fault. A lot of food chemicals are neurotoxins and change the way you think - MSG is a classic example. Look up where neutrasweet came from... and phenylketonurics... I can personally attest to the reaction I have to these chemicals now that I've cleaned up my act. Within minutes of eating MSG my mood changes and i feel cloudy, grumpy and agitated, and I crave crave crave - I pee 3 or 4 times in the next 3 hours and then feel dehydrated for ages. If i drink heaps of water it just comes straight out. How can someone who's not actively monitoring this be expected to take notice of all this and make an appropriate decision? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted June 21, 2012 lol - I'm baking potting soil, sand and coir in the oven at the moment and it smells better than maccas haha... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
whitewind Posted June 21, 2012 Since me and my misses started only cooking our own stuff we slowly realised we couldn't eat anything much out, our choices of takeaway are now only two - one for her as she refuses to eat chips, though she will eat the fish even though we can both cook fish better, sometimes it's nice to go out! The other place is the local Thai, it's pricey but good. The other day we decided to eat out, we tried Japanese - it was so sweet we couldn't eat it - then we tried Thai as we thought it would be even healthier, more fool us, it was so salty we almost vomited. We spent shit loads of cash and it was all basically inedible. We wouldn't even attempt a maccas quite honestly, we do all our own cooking and not only is it heaps cheaper it's healthier than almost anything you can buy from a restaurant. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fairy Posted June 21, 2012 Interesting vid. I love how they've taken advantage of people's interest in seeing "behind the scenes" type footage in combination with the public joke that is fast food advertising and spun it so it makes them look like honest, customer-focused caring guys. Pretty hilarious. The whole 'food-styling' thing is insane. I'm a photographer and I interviewed at a commercial studio a couple of years ago that did this kind of thing, a lot of food photography and and photo-manipulation for advertising campaigns like 'don't drive tired', with a big smashed car on the poster that they would've spent hours working on. A lot of the stuff that goes on for these things is artistically really fascinating, people don't realise how much work goes into them! It's so sad that for creative people who want to work in the Visual Art industry the only way of making a decent living is to go commercial. I agree with IndianDreaming on a lot of points. We are bombarded by advertising sending us various messages constantly, in multiple formats, even without us always being aware of it. It messes with people's heads in so many subtle ways. Marketing/advertising can be such a disgusting industry, just like so many other things in today's world it's entirely money-driven and completely unsustainable. It's really sad how totally acceptable fast food is, it's not just unhealthy cause it's "fatty", there's so much more to it. For one thing the meat industry is completely fucked, and all the genetically modified shit in this food - I mean you can hardly call it food, it's certainly not nourishing in any way, it really is like poison. Blah, just really sad. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
