Food Advertising Reality Check: Pizza And Burger Edition
This doesn't quite qualify as "unacceptable food." More like "food that doesn't look quite like depicted in the ads." We bring disappointing photographs of a frozen pizza from fancy-pants grocer Whole Foods, and a humble cheeseburger from Jack in the Box.
The first photo comes from Steven, who received this Ultimate Cheeseburger from Jack in the Box. Expecting something that at least remotely resembled the promo image above, he received a sandwich that looked like it had been stomped on. "Did I eat it? Yes," he wrote. "Was it good? No. It was merely OK."
Clearly this would NOT have happened on Blake's watch.
Meanwhile, Emily brought home this delicious-looking frozen pizza from Whole Foods. She discovered the cold, hard reality when she opened the package: the exterior photo was a bit deceiving. She wrote:
Opening the package was a bit of a let down, especially since one of the edges of the pizza was bent at a 90 degree angle.The chicken is really the most misleading part of the photo.
(It tasted yummy, though!)
RELATED: Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality
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Comments:
not blaming the victim here, but frozen pizza usually looks like crap regardless of where it's from. re-arrange the chicken, throw it in the oven and I'm sure it will look more like what's shown on the box.
I'm still looking for the 'chunks' in StarKist Chuck Light Tuna.
Making plastic sculptures of foods that doesn't exist then marketing it really blurs the border between immoral and illegal in my mind. Would it be too much if we were to require ad agencies to depict food as it appears when purchased through the same channels as consumers? Would people still buy it? Would companies still buy ads?
I'm not normally the anti-preservative / pro-organic type, but ever since I started making my pizza from scratch, I've lost my "tolerance" for frozen pizza. Someone made one of the rising-crust frozen pizzas and I felt like crap, with a nasty artificial taste in my mouth all afternoon.
Seriously folks, once you have real pizza, it's tough to go back
Hah, reminds me of working at Papa Johns years ago and they had the "Perfect 10" pizza on a poster, which is what we were supposed to aspire to.
Problem is, the thing looked like a wax replica.
Never expect your food to look exactly like the advertisement. There are way too many variables, and particularly when it comes to fast food, the people making the food are more than likely not going to care that the burger is squished. Do you want to stare at your food or eat it? Cynical yes, but you have less disappointment that way.
Is that the same burger? I don't see a yellow process-cheese-food-slice.
@lpranal: ...okay? I've had real pizza. I also still enjoy frozen pizza quite a bit. Seriously, folks, not everyone has the same tastes.
@lpranal: I'm with you, local pizza joint or home grilled pizza is all I'll eat. Domino's and 4 cheese Tony's were great when I was making $50 a week in college, now I won't touch that swill.
Please use caution when opening your pizza box as contents may have shifted during flight. We know you have a choice when eating frozen pizza and we appreciate you choosing 365 Organic today. Thank you and have a nice meal.
I can't speak for all Jack in the Boxes (Jacks in the Box? Do we pluralize the Jacks or the Boxes? Deep...), but the one near me in Simpsonville, SC is consistently excellent in both "picture reproduction" and in the quality of food. Them, and the adjacent Hardee's are top notch, and my wife and I never really get that horribly dirty "I'm eating at a fast food restaurant and it IS NOT okay" feeling.
They spoil me, they really do. And now you've gone and made me hungry for a roastburger when I went out of my way to bring a sammich to work today. Thanks, Consumerist! =)
You mean there are people left in America who believe the glurge they're buying actually will look like those fantasy beauty shots in the ads? How quaint!
@joecoolest: Think about the last fast food meal you purchased. If it looked like that on a billboard, would you still have gotten a craving for it? Probably not.
@ManiacDan: Do it. Please. Send it in to tips@consumerist.com
Seriously.
Make it happen.
Then we'll see in HQ detail how shitty the burgers are.
What's the big deal? This kind of thing has been going on since commercial advertising started. If someone hasn't realized it by now...
When I used to live in a region that had Jack-in-the-Box, I'd get an ultimate cheeseburger once a week at least. They never looked like the tragedy above, in fact, they were pretty spot on with the actual ad photo.
Damnit JitB, come to the northeast!
@nakedscience: just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with frozen pizza, I used to live off it- but after not having it for 6 months to a year, I notice all these weird, unpleasant flavors. It's probably just me.
@DashTheHand: I agree with DashtheHand. Out of all the chains, I thought Jack had the best put together burgers (I had high hopes for wendys but they fall short) *also In and Out really can't be considered, as they are a cut above. I am on the west coast. BTW, if you want a really good fast food burger, get the sirloin burger from jack (not mini).
@GenerousHelpingOf_GitEmSteveDave:
Ditto. I love that movie. Scary and tense -- yet there are times when you can't help but laugh out loud.
@bornonbord: Seroiously. I wouldn't compare a frozen cheeseburger to a picture of an actual cheeseburger. Although I probably wouldn't want to eat a frozen cheeseburger anyway. Why should it be different for pizza?
@bornonbord: Yeah exactly. I wouldn't get disappointed till AFTER it comes out of the oven. The picture on the box is a cooked pizza, the thing in the box is a frozen pizza. You can't compare them yet.
I'm sure it won't look exactly like the box photography, but it should be closer.
The more important point, though, is how do these things TASTE? Usually I don't care what my food looks like as long as it tastes good.
@ManiacDan: Do you HONESTLY know what goes into making/taking food pictures? Here's some hints/tips/facts.
The food shown in the ad must be real. However, you can pretty much do anything/use anything for accessories.
Hamburgers are only seared on the outside for filming.
The ketchup your see is real ketchup, but is triple strained to get it like a thick paste and is applied by syringe.
Usually they take at least 3-4 dozen rolls to find the perfect "set(s)" of one whole bun.
Cheese is melted with a heat gun to get it drape like that.
Lettuce is like the buns, and they usually take 2-3 heads to find the perfect pieces. They are usually then sprayed with a glycerin mix to get that water droplet look.
So it's not the camera, it's the prep. I believe Consumerist did a nice article on how many boxes of cereal it takes to take one photo of a bowl.
@ManiacDan: Please do back up your complaint with an experiment of your own. No doubt the results will be interesting!
@bornonbord: And to top it off, the frozen pizza's appearance isn't that bad. It looks like it could feasibly cook up to looking like the box.
I once went into a Subway sandwich shop and asked the guy how long it would take to make me a sandwich that looked like the picture on the wall, he said over half an hour.
homebrew pizza can't be matched! Except perhaps in Italy.
@lpranal: I slaughter and grind my own cows after processing their milk. I even grow my own wheat and whatever sesame comes from for my buns! Take THAT, Jack in the Box!
@HIV 2 Elway: I'm guessing there are a lot of Italian guys named Tony, and that Tony's in your context is a chain? I have a local pizza place named Tony's NY Pizza that is amazing.
If you ever get the chance go to Harvey's (almost everywhere in Canada). The burger looks just the way you want it to look because they build it right in front of you. You say what goes on it and how much. I love the dill pickle Harvey's uses and always get a huge pile of it on the burger. When they aren't busy you can often get a side of dill pickle for no extra charge. ...mmmmmm... it really is good dill pickle.
Yes, the buns sometimes get a little deflated when the burger gets wrapped up... but, mmmmmm the dill pickle!
@discounteggroll: Yeah, that was a silly argument for her to make. Of course it looks different... the photo on the box is cooked.
@IfThenElvis: The FDA says that the word "chunk" can officially designate any piece larger than a "mote." This includes but is not limited to: string, frass and chum fish.
@lpranal: Yep. I got the bread/dough maker at home, if I want to drop $20 on a pizza I just buy some ingredients and spend 2 hours in the kitchen. Presto. Much better.
@novacthall: If you were going by accuracy, it would probably be Jacks in the Boxes, because Jack in the Boxes implies one Jack in several boxes, which is grisly and unlikely to happen. If you say Jacks in the Box, you imply there is more than one Jack in one box, which is also false. You want to imply there are multiple restaurants...so Jacks in the Boxes.
I'm overthinking this one :-P I've had a lot of coffee this morning.
@joecoolest: They don't make plastic sculptures, they use actual food, but the ad agencies have crazy ways of making it look the way they do. I watched a special on it years ago and one thing they do with whole turkeys is they run an iron over it so it looks cooked, and since they're using steam, it looks juicy and moist as well.
That flat burger still looks good to me. Then again, I'm very hungry.
@HIV 2 Elway: Gotcha. When I was a poor college kid (well, poor by socialization. All of my friends were poor, so I saved money because none of them could afford to go out, so I didn't either) we ate lots and lots of baked potatoes. We never did frozen pizza because we didn't have an oven and it was a pain to heat up mini pizzas...and they were disgusting. But you really can't beat microwave baked potatoes for cheap college food. Starches fill you up, give you fuel, and 10 lb. bags make really good door stops.
@GenerousHelpingOf_GitEmSteveDave:
Man, I haven't seen that movie in years. Into the Netfix queue it goes...
@GenerousHelpingOf_GitEmSteveDave: Like I said up a bit, they also iron whole turkeys to make them look juicy and delicious.
I have to admit, I love all of the tricks that they've come up with to make the food look the way they do. A lot of it is just insane.
@GenerousHelpingOf_GitEmSteveDave: I remember somewhere years ago a story about food stylists doing an ice cream shoot - cartons and cartons of ice cream were scooped and from those they selected a few 'perfect' scoops that were stored in the freezer. While they set up the shoot, they checked lighting camera angles etc using a 'stunt' scoop of mashed potatoes, then when it was all ready, they pulled out the 'star' and got their shot
@AngryK9: The point is not that this is new. The point is that its high time someone finally called shenanigans on them for doing this
"You cannot has this cheezburger."
Excellent.
@lpranal: The obligatory I-make-my-own-pizza comment in response to any post with the word "pizza" in it? That's a big checkeroo, good buddy!
![[smartcanucks.ca]](http://smartcanucks.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/harveys-burger.jpg){kind=link}
Sorry Emily - cook it, then compare. That's apples 'n oranges, I'm afraid.
Don't get me wrong, even cooked I'm sure it didn't look right, but the uncooked frozen product vs. a cooked product is not fair at all. No sympathy.