Quirky News
McDonald's admits burger tricks
A video revealing how McDonald's photoshops its burgers to make them appear more enticing has gone viral online.
The clip, showing how photographers make burgers look bigger, juicier and tastier, has attracted 1.25m hits in two days.
It was posted on YouTube after a young customer asked "Why does your food look different in the advertising than what is in the store?"
Hope Bagozzi, McDonald's Canada's director of marketing, first visited a local McDonald's restaurant to buy a quarterpounder with cheese.
It was then photographed alongside one which had been painstakingly deconstructed and rebuilt by a creative agency.
The cheese was carefully blasted with a blowtorch, onion slices positioned with surgical precision and ketchup and mustard added using a syringe.
The image was then retouched to "finesse the product" with sesame seeds repositioned on top and any errant crumbs removed.
Once photographed, the picture of the burger was tweaked digitally, with other blemishes airbrushed out in a similar way to a fashion shoot.
Miss Bagozzi said: "That (normal) burger was made in about a minute or so. The process we go through on the average shoot takes several hours.
"I think that it's important to note that all the ingredients are the exact same ingredients that we use in the restaurant.
"So it is the exact same patty, it's the exact same ketchup, mustard and onions, and same buns."
Update:
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what do you think?
Stuart Harley
I LIKE A BIG MAC EVERY NOW AND AGAIN !!!!
EQINOX187 .
What the heck is a pattie... Or do they mean burger ...... This story is hardly New News its been around forsome time and personaly i dont care what it looks like aslong as it taists as it should. However i can see why some would be angry at this after all who would like to go into a car dealer look at some pics of cars and say i want that one and when its delivered its the same car but all rusty and scratched and inregards to to traiding standards / consumer rights the pic of a product has to look like the final product. So they have infact violated this small law by making the burger by hand and making it look bigger and juicier and more apatising while the acual burger looks like someones dog sat on it.
Mike Williams
"So it is the exact same patty, it's the exact same ketchup, mustard and onions, and same buns." it just hasnt been sat on for an hour then used as a cloth to wipe the surfaces before being sserved to you...
Tracey Walker
If were having a go at macdonalds can someone explain why burgerking can call something a whopper when a child could swallow the thing whole and still not be full or is that something that trading standards should consider
Simon .
you must have a gross child if they can swallow a whopper whole (post this as a video!) and still not be full.
Dorrien Phillips
Whopper is their trade name, it's not a description of size, and agree with the other poster, if your child can swallow anything near that size whole, it must have problems or a very succesful future on Man vs Food.
Baker101
They shouldn't be allowed to do it. It's false advertising to have this photo of a huge burger when it's flat as a pancake when you buy one yourself.
Dorrien Phillips
It isn't false advertising at all, the products seen there in their picture are identical to what you get, how many adverts have you seen for other items that look nowhere near reality....photoshopping just improves, it doesnt change
Baker101
You can't honestly expect me to believe they use exactly the same burger meat when you can clearly see it's a lot thinner.
Dorrien Phillips
Did you watch the same vid as me? they clearly state the ingredients are exactly the same! The difference you see in the advertising is described in the vid, and is done with the Photoshopping. What would be false advertising and quite honestly a major mistake my McDonalds is making these claims in the vid and lying. Well done to Mc Donalds for actually having the balls to come out and say how they do it.
Stephen Morrison
I can guarantee it's not just McDonalds that do this. Any photo you see of food whether its in a restraunt, magazine, cookery book or billboard are taken by food photographers, its certainly nothing new. There is companies and desginers that specialise in food photography, some of places will even use non food ingrediants to make sauces or glazes more glossy. Everything is faked, theres no longer any truth in the phrase 'the photo never lies'.
Rhys Sage
Exactly what I'd expect to happen to be honest... What I'd like to see is how much fat you can squeeze out of a Big Mac.
robert
I would not eat a macdonalds meal/sandwich even if they paid me.There is nothing apealing in anything they sell.
john
And they have got the rights to the food stalls at the 2012 olympics, not a good sign.
Nicola Anderson
nice that theyre being honest about it
Rob Shaw
It's shocking that they are allowed to say it's made from 100% beef. The only reason they get away with it is because the company they get the meat from is called '100% Beef'
Dorrien Phillips
Beef is a generic term for 'from a bovine source' ie a cow, 100 of their patties come from a cow.
Mike
This comment has been removed for violations of our Terms and Conditions.
Baker101
And why do they still put those gerkins in there? No one I know eats them, they just get wasted. It should be a case of asking to put them in rather than asking to not put them in.
Dorrien Phillips
I love gerkins lol, tbh the only time i would ever eat one of these was if I was desperate, and the gerkins add flavour to the whole thing.
Raymond Castle
My wife always pinches mine (it's just as well that I can't stand the blooming things!).
Mike Williams
they are the only thing in there that tastes of anything. remove the gherkin, remove the flavour of mcdonalds.
Julie Crumpton
Well surely anyone who buys these disgusting things would see for themselves how rubbish they are! The only thing I would eat if forced, is the gherkin!
Windows Live User
Not even the gherkin I am afraid. I had a burger once, took one bite and binned it. Disgusting was my thought
Richard Gould
If the final product does not match the photograph then it is breaching trading standards as it is not as described. Therefore it is illegal. But is that not the same as all of these adverts which we see on television which make amazing claims, supported by demonstrations??? I have never seen a floor cleaner clean a floor in real life as much as it doea on the adverts. Ultimately, the Trading Standards, the government, the Advertising Standards Agency etc should all start doing their jobs and outlaw deceptive advertising as it is, in essence, illegal.
Ray Stoner
While on the subject of quick food, did you know that kentucky fried chicken is actually not fried at all, it's only the coating that is fried. The chicken pieces are cooked in pressure cookers which is why they are so tender and moist. If chicken is fried , it is dry.
Dorrien Phillips
Kentucky Fried Chicken no longer exists, maybe for the reason you state, If you notice it is now known as KFC, however the way that the chicken is cooked in the deep south of the USA is fried. I can only assume its the logistics of numbers for KFC to pressure cook them.
Jordan Clapham
Surely thats false advertising...
Windows Live User
Pleased to say I have only had 1 some 20 odd years ago and that cured me for life
Derek Porter
It seems strange that there are a lot of comments, on this item, from an awful lot of people who, apparently, would never touch this so called food.
djet
9:29am on 21/6/2012
Very interesting video - next I'd like to see how much meat goes into the pattie and where on the animal it comes from...or maybe I wouldnt
EQINOX187 .
11:00am on 21/6/2012
what goes into the BURGER they claim is 100% Beef but in reality it is Beef / salt / pepper and lastly egg to bind it all together. If you buy just a plain burger you can saist the salt / pepper and sometimes a hint of the egg
Simon .
1:10pm on 21/6/2012
well 100% beef includes all the bits you don't want to eat normally - the sort of stuff that if you saw it in a butchers you would NEVER buy. But it's technically beef as it comes from the cow.