Food/Groceries

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Fast Food $1 Burgers: Where’s the Beef?

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.

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

(Not so) Free Chips Ahoy Cookies

Nabisco took out a full page in a recent Sunday coupon insert promoting a free package of Chips Ahoy cookies. What they were asking people to do was to visit their Facebook page, and there they could download a coupon for a free package of cookies.

That is not such an unusual offer. Last year, TGI Friday gave away free hamburgers if you became a fan of theirs on Facebook.

What’s different about this offer is buried in the fine print, and not even in that section of red words at the bottom of the ad.

*MOUSE PRINT:

So the offer is not really what the headline promises, nor even what the coupon at the bottom of the ad suggests in the larger print. The offer is really:

1. Buy a gallon of milk.
2. Buy a package of Nabisco cookies.
3. Become a fan of our cookies on Facebook.
4. Then and only then, get a free package of cookies.

The Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines on the use of the word “free” say:

“When making “Free” or similar offers all the terms, conditions and obligations upon which receipt and retention of the “Free” item are contingent should be set forth clearly and conspicuously at the outset of the offer so as to leave no reasonable probability that the terms of the offer might be misunderstood. Stated differently, all of the terms, conditions and obligations should appear in close conjunction with the offer of “Free” merchandise or service. For example, disclosure of the terms of the offer set forth in a footnote of an advertisement to which reference is made by an asterisk or other symbol placed next to the offer, is not regarded as making disclosure at the outset. ”

Will advertisers EVER learn to play it straight (and follow the rules) and not lead consumers to believe they are offering something for free with no additional purchase necessary, when in fact there are many strings?

Updated every Monday!   Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Campbell’s (Not) 25% Less Sodium Tomato Soup

As we become more health conscious, we tend to be attracted to products that are better for us. Unfortunately, manufacturers usually charge a premium price when a product offers health benefits compared to similar products.

Here, for example, is Campbell’s Tomato soup — the regular type and the 25% less sodium version. Their regular tomato soup is $1 a can, while the can with less salt is $1.39. A huge percentage price difference. Funny, how we’re charged more for less. But it gets worse. When one checks the nutrition label, there is a big surprise:

*MOUSE PRINT:

The 25% reduced sodium version has just as much salt as the regular version!

Interestingly the mouse print on the back of the label of their regular tomato soup claims that it has 42% less sodium than Campbell’s regular soup — a greater reduction in salt than their so-called reduced sodium product.

How does Campbell’s explain these discrepancies? Consumer reporter Michael Finney (who tipped us off to this story) of the local ABC affiliate in San Francisco asked them [ignore initial 15 second ad]:

(Here is a direct link to the story if you cannot access the video above.)