The big three hamburger chains are battling for your buck by offering double cheeseburgers for only 99 cents or a dollar. The ads for these burgers make them look so large and enticing, but the reality is starkly different.
Here are pictures of the promised burgers followed by what MrConsumer was actually served.
Burger King double cheeseburger:
McDonald’s McDouble (ordered without the one piece of cheese):
Wendy’s Double Stack (ordered without the one piece of cheese):
All the burgers that were delivered looked like miniature sandwiches for children. None was really overflowing with meat as the photographs depicted, but the Wendy’s burger came the closest. It appears that fast food restaurants are taking an unreasonable amount of liberty in depicting the size of their burgers.
So how much beef is really in each of these sandwiches? Surprisingly, you can’t find out on the fast food restaurants’ websites except for Burger King, nor is it even listed in their nutritional information.
The PR or customer service folks at the three companies provided the hidden information.
*MOUSE PRINT:
The ugliest burger delivered — the one from Burger King — turned out to have the most beef, and frankly was the tastiest by far.
I wonder if the BK burger was tastiest because it was the only one with cheese on it.
Edgar replies: MrConsumer did not eat the burger with cheese (since he is lactose intolerant), but just photographed the burger ordered by a companion. The “tastes best” opinion is based on the non-cheese version of all three burgers.
Just curious, was there any notable difference in the amount of toppings like onion too? I ask because the BK burger had the most beef but from the angle of the actual serving picture it would appear either hidden or removed.
My guess is that if it’s removed there’s more focus on beef.
Edgar replies: In the purchased burgers, nothing was removed before photographing them. So, everything that should come with the burger did… but the bun tends to hide those ingredients. The professional photographs tend to try to pile up all the ingredients to make the sandwich look higher/larger.
Restaurants of all types, not just fast-food or burger joints, have been guilty forever of unrealistically depicting their menu choices. I guess you could try demanding that your food at least resembles the depicted example, quoting some form of truth-in-advertising law, but good luck with that. You are more likely to receive your order with additional “secret sauce” rather than visual perfection.
I can hear Clara Peeler turning over in her grave as I read this!
Food shown in ads is often not food, or at least not the food it is photographed to look like. For example, ice cream can’t hold up under studio lights, so sometimes shortening is used.
I have always wanted to photograph the commercials from my TV screen, then order the product at the counter and sens it back saying “No, no, I wanted the double cheeseburger you advertise on TV, you know, THIS ONE!”, and hold up the picture.
Quoting PCnotPC:
Restaurants of all types, not just fast-food or burger joints, have been guilty forever of unrealistically depicting their menu choices. I guess you could try demanding that your food at least resembles the depicted example, quoting some form of truth-in-advertising law, but good luck with that. You are more likely to receive your order with additional “secret sauce†rather than visual perfection.
Every corporation, regardless of industry, strives to make their product appealing. You’re right, the burgers pictured on the left do not even closely resemble the actual delivered product. I’ve gotten burgers at McD’s where the cheese was half off the bun, with the burger(s) off the bun on the opposite side. They replaced it for me. It’s not a double burger, but Jack in the Box has the “big cheeseburger” that has two different kinds of cheese and a fairly good-sized meat patty. It is better than the McD double.
Hmm. Was the weight they provided to you the pre- or post-cooked weight?
Edgar replies: Noni… before cooking.
How does the weights listed in your chart, compare to the weight and size, of the “regular” burgers? You say “All the burgers that were delivered looked like miniature sandwiches for children.” – compare with normal burgers.
Edgar replies: The individual hamburger patties served in the dollar cheeseburgers are the “regular” size hamburgers. Most people do not buy a regular hamburger at these places, they buy “Whoppers” or “quarter pounders”. Both of the latter burgers weigh 4 oz. before cooking.
In fairness:
1) I think photographing “fake” or dressed-up versions of food is a reasonable practice. Until a law were passed saying ALL restaraunts had to photograph exactly what they served, nobody could be competative by doing so. I’ve you’ve ever seen commercials for local restaraunts, you know how gross real food looks on camera.
2) I would rather eat a sloppy-looking burger (as long as it’s reasonably assembled for edibility) than stand around all day waiting for them to craft a perfectly-arranged work of art.
That being said, restaraunts should reveal the actual size of these burgers.
Spongebob would be scandalized by this news, however Mr. Krabs would be delighted. Has Plankton stolen the krabby patty formula yet?
It’s funny in my area McDonald’s is the only one who actually has a burger for a buck. At BK and Wendys the burgers are now $1.39. The double cheeseburgers I receive when I order actually do look a lot like the “real” pictures, zapped and smashed!
Do you remember the advertisement for “delicious mouth watering burger?”, I asked my server IF I could change my order after the food was presented at the table. It looked nothing like the menu picture. I was then called a trouble maker !
Haven’t been here in awhile, but just read everything from the top down to this article so far.
Just wanted to add that I once saw (or read?) something about how “ad wizards” (to use a Seinfeld term) photograph fast food. When it comes to burgers, they often make a slice from the center of the patty to the back edge. The slice can then be spread apart (so it looks more like PacMan with his mouth open) so the patty looks wider when the finished product is photographed from the front.
Notice how all the ad pictures show these burgers head-on, rather than from any other angle that would allow you to see that cut around the back side. The patties can also be positioned so they hang off the front edge of the bun, adding to the illusion, since again — you can’t see how they wind up NOT hanging off the back side of the bun.
In most cases, photographers will also use meat that wasn’t quite cooked ALL the way like the burgers you get at the store. Those black grill lines are added specifically by a hot metal probe. That also explains why the meat you see in the ads usually has “squarer corners” than the flimsy-looking patties we’re served in the real world.
And let’s not forget about Photoshop. They can airbrush a photo of a burger just as easily as they can airbrush the blemishes off a celebrity’s magazine cover shots.