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Why Your McD's Burger Doesn't Look Like the One in the Ad
- fossley 14y agoIt used to be annoying that the food looks so different, but after that video ... I feel better ... and hungry. Some good communication there from the McMarketing Department
- gouranga 14y agoto be honest in the UK at least they look pretty similar although usually assembled slightly wonky. Still taste as good as they look in the ads though. Despite all the bad press, McDonalds is great (well I like them anyway).
- tptacek 14y agoThis is clever (if cynical) marketing from McDonalds Canada: take one of the oldest knocks against large-scale fast food (that's it's marketed dishonestly) and turn it into a product benefit: "it's ugly because we took the original product, which is beautiful, and then uglified it to make it taste better". One thing that makes this piece cynical is that the integrity of fast food promo graphics is not a new or pressing issue; McDonalds has had many excellent opportunities to address that critique in the past. Also, note carefully the details in this piece: it covers "food styling" done by "WATT" for "McDonalds Canada" and claims that that particular shoot used only the actual ingredients McDonalds uses in its retail chain. From what little I know of the "food styling" business (not much, but I've met people who work in it), it would be an extraordinary claim that McDonalds adheres to that "only real store-scale ingredients used in promotional graphics" credo worldwide. But maybe they do?
- chadrs 14y agoI was always under the impression that most food photography was not just using different ingredients, but that they were actually using inedible materials (paint, glue, clay, etc.) on/for the food in the pictures.
- tptacek 14y agoLikewise, and from talking to food stylists, not just from reading about it. Again: totally possible McD doesn't do that anywhere.
- lmkg 14y agoI'm trying to reconcile this (which I've heard before) with what other people are saying about advertising laws, and I've got two hypotheses. 1. Not all food photography is advertising. For example, food magazines: They're not actually selling what's on the cover. They're well within their rights that the covershoot consists entirely of wax models of tomatoes rather than real tomatoes[1]. The same would apply to the Food or Recipes sections in generic lifestyle magazines. 2. The things that are "not the food itself" is interpreted very broadly. As others have noted, you can use white glue for milk if you're hawking cereal. If you're selling tomatoes, you can probably still dip them in wax varnish to make them shine, and add "water" drops made of epoxy to sexy them up[2]. [1] That is to say, "real" wax models, not Roma tomatoes. [2] I mean "sexy" literally. It's called "food porn" for a reason. The photographic techniques and cinematographic styles are apparently very similar.
- raganwald 14y agoI understand there are specific laws about what they can and cannot show in a food ad in Ontario and/or Canada. They can do their own preparation, but I believe the ingredients must be identical to the ones in the actual product. So it must be an actual beef patty, and the ketchup and mustard can be squirted on carefully, but they have to be real ketchup and mustard.
- excuse-me 14y agoSame in europe - the advertising standards agencies are very strict that it must be the exact product. There is a famous case of an ad for Martini where, because of the rules, it had to be the real product that the actors were drinking! Which lead to a catch-22 after a few takes - the more mistakes they made, the more they had to drink and the more mistakes they made.....
- excuse-me 14y agoFound them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirMZGL-0mQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PirMZGL-0mQ Leonard Rossiter is a famous British actor but had a reputation for being difficult to work with and a real perfectionist. Joan Collins said in an interview that he kept messing up the take after each drink and she wasn't sure if he was doing it deliberately - but they ended up very drunk at the end.
- oz 14y agoA well-known food celebrity in Jamaica told me once that most ice-cream ads actually use mashed potatoes. I didn't know enough to ask her if that was a local or international practice.
- excuse-me 14y agoThey also use plastic ice cubes so you have time to setup a shot and there is a whole market in plastic food, see this ad studio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKC6j7pW6T0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKC6j7pW6T0 But there is a difference between just food in a photo-shoot where you can use anything and a shot of the actual product in an ad which must obey certain rules in most countries
- gilrain 14y agoIn the US, they have to by law... if the photo is advertising an actual product. For instance, they could garnish the photo with a basket of fresh tomatoes, a head of lettuce, a friendly cow, etc. and that would be okay... as long as the actual product being sold is made using the as-sold ingredients. This law came about in, hm, the 60s? after the first wave of outrage over things like ice cream in advertisements being made out of textured lard, or whatever.
- tptacek 14y agoIs that actually the law? If you're referring to the FTC Act, I don't see the bright-line about using actual ingredients; the law says you can't make "deceptive" statements in advertising, and the FTC clarifies "deceptive" in a policy statement as (paraphrased) "a false statement about a material fact of the product that would mislead consumers into taking an action they wouldn't if the statement were known to be false". So, showing a 3/4 pound hamburger in an ad for 99 cent cheeseburgers would be material, but using colored caulk instead of mustard probably wouldn't be.
- gilrain 14y agoFrom here (http://insite.artinstitutes.edu/food-stylists-blend-technical-skill-creativity-for-the-camera-14570.aspx http://insite.artinstitutes.edu/food-stylists-blend-technica...): "The food stylist’s magic tricks face regulation from the Federal Trade Commission and its truth in advertising laws. That Crisco-powdered sugar mix can substitute for ice cream if it’s representing a generic dessert on a menu, Allaben says, but not if it’s hawking a brand name like Ben & Jerry’s." And here (http://www.cskern.com/blog/entryid/11 http://www.cskern.com/blog/entryid/11): "The truth is most of what you see in food photographs is real. FTC laws state that whatever you’re selling with a photo must be real in the image. To use a familiar example, if you’re selling corn flakes the flakes must be real. But then it gets interesting. You can use white glue instead of milk in your bowl of flakes because you’re not selling the milk, only the corn flakes." So, the product being sold must be real as-it-is-sold (albeit much more carefully styled, generally). The incidentals can be embellished. A McD's quarter-pounder is a single product, and so presumably must be made with its actual ingredients in ads.
- checoivan 14y agoEven if they use ingredients from a single store it'll look 1000 times better in the picture. The photog gets to choose the best bun out of hundreds, the best tomatoes, greenest lettuce. In the end photograph, the bun will look perfect and fluffy, the tomato sparkles, and the meat seems fresher than a live cow. Plus they may or may not, but there are "tricks" to simulate things like fake steam coming out of food, spraying glicerin or corn syrup to make it look moist(looks like water droplets), or simply cold food photographs better. On top of all that, good lighting does wonders as well.
- sophacles 14y agoIt's not like this is the first time McDonald's has openly addressed this either. I remember seeing a bit on this process with cooperation from the company when I was a kid (say 20 years ago). The technique hasn't changed at all (it's basically the same clip really, less photoshop more hand touchup in the old school one being the prime differences)
- raganwald 14y agoDirect Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8
- 51Cards 14y agoI've never had a huge issue with the difference in appearance. One was assembled by a stylist, the other by a teenager putting together 200 of them in a shift. As long as what I asked for is in there, and what I didn't ask for isn't, and it's generally piled vertically, I'm good. Nice bit of PR on McD's part though... this is very seldom directly addressed by the food industry. Now to find lunch...
- larrik 14y agoI happen to know that in the USA, they can (and presumably, do) use plastic replicas for their photography. (My wife saw the ones Dairy Queen used while she worked there. She says they look amazingly real, even up close)
- ryanwhitney 14y agoIt's a great marketing video for McDonalds, but sidesteps the actual question almost entirely. They respond to "why do your burgers look different in commercials?" by answering "here's the process of making a commercial burger." That doesn't address the fact that a stylist cooked it on a panini grill for an hour looking the perfect brown, leading to a thicker-width burger which indeed makes their advertisements a lie. It doesn't matter if they use the same ingredients or need to show their pickles and ketchup. They've created an entirely different product for the advertisement and will continue to sell a lesser product in place of it. The only honest answer to the original question is the obvious one: because their normal burgers look like crap.
- danso 14y agoBut it attacks an implicit accusation in that question: if the food in the commercial looks so different than it does in real life, you must be using different ingredients. Let's face it, the fact that this ad is getting a lot of talk will be a success, because very few people will watch through the whole video and many, many fewer people will actually keep the logical assertions straight in their head...but the 5-second sound byte is: "McDonald takes on critics who accuse them of food doctoring"...even if 95% of the video is boilerplate this-is-how-you-photograph-products. I'll admit it, somewhere in my subconscious, McDonalds got an upvote, and I'll probably act on that in a future situation when I am hungry.
- Evbn 14y agoJust remember that their burgers make you sick and aren't satisfying and you will be happier an hour later if you are a couple of granola bars and beef jerky instead.
- reledi 14y ago> That doesn't address the fact that a stylist cooked it on a panini grill for an hour looking the perfect brown, leading to a thicker-width burger which indeed makes their advertisements a lie. The patties are usually undercooked as well for the photo shoots, so the meat doesn't shrink as much.
- kaonashi 14y agotl;dw They lie.
- eykanal 14y agoI'll disagree slightly with tptacek... this is a genius piece of marketing by McDonalds. It does everything that we routinely see listed on this very site as Best Practices™: - Respond to customer feedback in a friendly and highly transparent manner. - Don't sugarcoat things that "everyone knows but no one admits"; they could have avoided showing the graphic artist photoshopping the burger, but everyone knows that they use photoshop, so why bother? Show everything and customers will trust you more. - Use social stuff like Twitter to encourage customer feedback. It will create a positive loop that encourages others to follow and interact with their main corporate account. - Respond before something is actually important. This one isn't showcased so strongly - this isn't a pressing issue by any measure - but they still took the time to respond to it and make a brief, informative, and actually engaging video about it, without some external "we screwed up, sorry" event. Interacting with customers like this before problems arise is simply awesome. Well done, McDonalds.
- ryanwhitney 14y agoYou claim they responded transparently and without sugar coating anything. So what was the answer to the original question? Why does the ad burger patty appear thicker and larger? Edit: So many answers talking about how they might make a quarter pound patty look larger. Anyone can do that. I was addressing the fact that the video in no way covers why they look larger in advertisements. Sidestepping the important question (selling false images, a product made differently) is what makes this merely a good marketing piece, and not any sort of honest explanation from McDonalds.
- evan_ 14y agoThey addressed it directly. When it sits in the box, the steam makes the bun wilt.
- ryanwhitney 14y agoReferring to the meat, not the bun.
- javert 14y agoSeriously? This is just another advertisement!
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- danso 14y agoGood submission...I agree with other commenters that this is a pretty good counter-meme. I just had to ask if anyone else had issues with the Flash player, as in, not being able to even rewind or move forward (in Mac Chrome). Brought me back to late 90s RealPlayer days.
- ShabbyDoo 14y agoI once saw a TV segment showing some starlet being photographed for a print clothing ad campaign. The stylist used metal clips (the sort one can buy at an office supply store for holding 50 sheets of paper together) to tighten the garment around her torso. From the front, the dress looked like it fit her perfectly. However, the back exposed a bunch of black metal clips holding back fabric. How does such an ad compare ethically to the specially-made McDonald's burger? A woman with the same measurements buying that same garment would not look as good as the starlet being photographed.
- philjohn 14y agoNot sure about in the US, but in the UK you often see store mannequins "dressed" the same way.
- j79 14y agoIn the US as well. Typically shirts and suits to give a "slimmed" appearance.
- mikeash 14y agoThat sounds like more of a shortcut than anything. Clothes are available in a variety of sizes, and it's just faster to clips than it is to figure out exactly what size this model needs.
- desigooner 14y agoAll the mens shirting still photos you see are shot in this manner. If you were to wear shirts that fitted so snugly, you might not even be able to move or breath.
- nicholassmith 14y agoI do a bit of a photography on the side and know a few working fashion photographers. Generally when you're supplied clothing from a company it'll come as a specific size, say size 8. You put out a casting call for a size 8 model that meets your specific requirements, and find that the clothes are too big for her due to sizing being weird. You then have to style it so it looks perfect and go from there, it's not so much about fake it to make it look more perfect (that's what gratuitous liquify is for) but to Get The Job Done. Someone with the exact same measurements generally has the benefit of being able to try the different sizes on, photographers often don't unless working with a company rep on hand, or they've sent multiple sizes which often only happens at the higher end.
- evan_ 14y agoDid I just hear a photographer say that photographs are one-dimensional?
- anusinha 14y agoThe area in which you can show the condiments/additions of the sandwich is (approximately) one dimensional. It is defined by the line between the patty and the bun, which is fairly thin. There is really only one degree of freedom in placing food there.
- aguynamedben 14y agoPhotos of ad vs. reality for fast food... http://www.alphaila.com/articles/failure/fast-food-false-advertising-vs-reality/ http://www.alphaila.com/articles/failure/fast-food-false-adv...
- wildmXranat 14y agoExtremely demanding schedule of lately has forced me to sacrifice on the quality of my daily food intake, where I snack occasionally on fast food items so here are my thoughts: Biggest issue with fast food is sort of linked to the "uglification for the sake of taste", but let's get one thing straight: fast food quality and taste is damn bad. So that excuse is out the window. I've tried everything on McD's menu including their newer 'bistro' or whatever sandwiches and all of them left me wondering WTF is wrong with this food. The biggest offender of this is, and I truly mean it - Tim Hortons. Ever since about two years ago or so, their food became garbage. They too have the pretty moving adverts in-store on their LCDs, but I'll be damned if I buy another item from that chain. Lesson learned: make and pack my own food as much as possible.
- eumenides1 14y agoTim Hortons used to bake and make their products in store. Now they outsource their work to Maidstone which they sold off. They just "finish" their products in store. It leads to a more consistent product and controllable costs. I don't think it's better quality (it's lifeless), but more consistent. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/streetwise/tim-hortons-sells-bakery-for-475-million-in-cash/article1376898/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ide... In the old days, I would simply just order what came out last from the oven. Because hot anything out of the oven is awesome. When it was a croissant, it is a jackpot. Personally, I think people don't realize the extent of how "factory" like a lot of corporate chains are. Like how Montana's doesn't actually "cook" your vegetables, they just microwave a frozen pack and dump it on a plate. And this is a sit-down restaurant with waitresses and cooks. My solution? I eat-in and plan out.
- pimeys 14y agoI don't even understand why people in USA go to McDonalds etc. I mean, if you want good burgers, USA is the paradise for them. E.g. while visiting Berkeley, one random burger joint called Bongo Burger was better than any burger I've eaten in Europe. I don't know how is it in smaller cities, but I would guess an American should know what's a good burger and what's complete rubbish.
- oz 14y agoMy own amusing anecdote: I grew up in rural Jamaica, where there was no fast food, but I came to the capital city (Kingston) twice per month, where we would always eat at KFC. So I'd never had a burger before (KFC dominates every fast food chain in Jamaica). When I was maybe 12 or 13, we had a class trip to Kingston, and after the outing, we went to a McDonalds. So I'm standing in the line, and looking at the ad suspended from the ceiling. I wondered "how in the world could someone eat something so big!" I decided to order it anyway. You only live once. Imagine my disappointment when the tiny box came back with an even tinier burger. I felt cheated, almost to the point of anger. Anecdotes aside, this is genius marketing by McDonald. No PR-speak, no cover-up, but rather: "Are the burgers in the ad different from the store? Sure!!! Come on in, let me show you everything. See, we do A, B, and C and that gives us D!" That deflates any possible anger and makes it look like they have nothing to hide. She deserves a raise.
- phene 14y agoYou had me until "YOLO."
- burrokeet 14y agoYou might be curious to know that the Burger King in Half Way Tree (a major crossroads in Kingston for those who don't know) had something like the largest grossing grand opening of any BK in the world when they opened on New Year's Eve in 1988. Funny place Jamaica - Pepsi, Blackberry and Burger King instead of Coke, iPhone and McDonalds.
- oz 14y agoWow, didn't know that! Last time I was there, I brought a flask of J Wray with me. You should have seen the looks on everybody's face when I uncorked it and started pouring it into the orange juice...I offered some whoever wanted, but no one took me up on the offer....fun times :) Oh, and you're perfectly right: "Pepsi, Blackberry and Burger King instead of Coke, iPhone and McDonalds."
- kaybe 14y ago"403 Forbidden You don't have permission to access /article/adages/video-burger-ad/235508/ on this server. Apache Server at adage.com Port 80" Apparently goes for the whole site. :(
- ctdonath 14y agoIt's the same reason your Victoria's Secret's ... well, I'll just stop there.
- flannell 14y agoI hope they don't do a follow up video for the beef! I'd hate to know what's in it.
- planetguy 14y agoI have bad news for you: it's made from the corpses of dead cows.
- bluishgreen 14y agoMy 3 year old nephew sometimes slips, falls down and cries. His parents wiggle a colorful toy sometimes and he forgets he fell down, forgets he is still hurting and runs behind the toy. This ad reminds me of the toy. Fast food is bad. I am not interested in the question to start with, so I won't bother with the given answer. thank you very much. That said, sadly this is a good ad campaign, because sadly most of us most of the time are attracted to colorful toys.
- huggyface 14y agoHow horribly patronizing. I just ate a Whopper. It was delicious. I eat in moderation, have an active life, and there is nothing particularly insidious or evil about this food. Some people just have to have their cause.
- mjballs 14y agosometimes, in a pinch, i use mcdonalds to hit my proteins/carbs/fats macros and calorie count because these stats are so well published (i even have my favorite quarter pounder minus dressing combo with milk and a healthy side memorized!). it does have its place with people on a sensible diet
- rprasad 14y agoFor all of you wanting the source of the FTC rules, see In re Campbell Soup Co., 77 F.T.C. 664 (1970), which sets forth the basic rules for advertising foods. There are print copies available, but the case generally precedes the digitized archives available freely or with subscriptions to legal research archives (i.e., Lexis/Westlaw). You can pay for individual case access if you actually need to read the case digitally. It is not cheap.
- xtractinator 14y agoWhy is this on Hacker News? http://danielmiessler.com/blog/the-decline-of-reddit-hacker-news-and-the-united-states http://danielmiessler.com/blog/the-decline-of-reddit-hacker-... ...oh yeah
- FaceKicker 14y agoDomino's put out a similar video a couple years ago: http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/dominos-gives-us-a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-food-styling-1956155.html http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/dominos-gives-us-a-glimpse... (sorry, would have linked directly to the video but it doesn't seem to be allowed)
- ars 14y agoSomeone copied it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63gE5eySkU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63gE5eySkU Search for "Domino's Pulling the Cheese".
- calydon 14y agoIf they cheat this much, it's basically lying. I mean, I don't care. Lie to me. It's better than the truth, frankly. I haven't eaten at McDonald's in years and this is just one of 100 reasons why. However when she says 'we use the exact same ingredients they use in the store' that's a blatant lie. For one thing all McDonald's stores use slightly different ingredients (whatever can be bought at best market prices) and they definitely could never produce a cosmetically perfect burger using stock ingredients. In addition, she doesn't tell you about all the non-food items that are used to make this look so good - hairspray for gloss, polymerized rubber for filling, etc. I will add, gratuitously, the money McD's is paying looks good on her.
- Kliment 14y agoDirect link without blogspam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8
- ff0066mote 14y agoEver been to Japan? The burgers and fries at McDonalds there are not lukewarm or squished like you get here in America, rather they're hot, toasted, and all puffed up. They're also more expensive.
- kalleboo 14y agoDamn, now I'm really in the mood for some Mos Burger. Fast food that looks exactly like their pictures. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalleboo/5997808382/lightbox/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalleboo/5997808382/lightbox/
- aapl 14y agoThis also applies to Freshness Burger and Kua'Aina. I don't understand how the Japanese can pull it off but Americans and Finns can't.
- meric 14y agoIn China too. There, McDonald's is a luxury. (A meal would cost several hours of wages.)
- mrose 14y agoThis is standard advertising practice across many industries and not unique to McDonald's. Examples include food (both restaurants and specific products like breakfast cereal), cosmetics, health products, even real estate. McDonald's really does push it very far though, in terms of disparity between the imagery and the actual product. I suppose it falls under the "fake it till you make it" category of business practices.
- Codhisattva 14y agoHas HN jumped the shark? #cantbelievethisisatthetop
- cremnob 14y agoI'm pretty proud, this is my first submission on the frontpage and it's number 1.
- meric 14y agoIt certainly demonstrating the usefulness of a well-executed marketing manoeuvre.
- kevinh 14y agoContent like this has reached the top from time to time for at least as long as I've been frequenting this site (about three years). It's amusing to note that these comments generally come from people with new accounts. It's so prevalent, in fact, that the guidelines specifically state "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)".
- Codhisattva 14y agoWell I didn't make any comparisons like that. Instead I implied an assumption about Hacker News that it's about news that interests hackers (in the lose sense of tech focused people). McD doesn't fit into that assumption. So ... something's gotta change (i.e. the assumption).
- igorgue 14y agoMost people think that the burgers that we see in the ads are just made with different ingredients, that's why they're bigger and more good looking. She made that really clear, they use the same ingredients in both burgers. The only difference is appearance not taste.
- JBiserkov 14y agoI'm unable to open the video, but from the comments it seems like "McDonald's are cheating in their video (Adobe Premiere and non-software stuff) about how they are cheating in their print ads (Adobe Photoshop and non-software stuff)" Cheat-ception!
- Goladus 14y agoI think the cleverest marketing bit from a cynic's perspective was the part where the hostess, the McDonald's Canada's Director of Marketing, confidently walks into the bright clean store, orders and obtains the burger from the pleasant staff, and pulls it out of its box in genuine anticipation and appears fully prepared to eat it when the camera cuts out. That's the psychological button-pushing aspect of this video that's hard to duplicate in normal advertisements. In addition to the value of the realism in scenario itself, showing a Director of Marketing appear genuinely enthusiastic about the quality of the product is also a big win. The rest of it is interesting, not really all that surprising, and undoubtedly simplified as much to fit into the desired time constraints as much as to present the issue in as positive a light as possible.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- grandalf 14y agoIt makes me sort of wonder why they don't just own the appearance of the squished, lopsided version customers end up purchasing. I mean, it still looks pretty tasty.
- DigitalSea 14y agoWho cares if this is a PR stunt? It answers the question quite truthfully, they aren't hiding the fact they have a food stylist who cooks the ingredients in a different way, tactfully places the meat, condiments and salads for a good picture. It's a known fact that in every industry involving photography; clothes, food, beverages, cars, electronic products is altered via Photoshop. Perfect lighting and a great photographer are about 90% of the work and the last 10% is usually minor alterations as seen in the video. Another reason that explains why the burgers look amazing in the advertising is because the food stylist has access to where ingredients are placed and what ingredients he uses. In McDonald's stores they just use whatever ingredients they have on hand and if you've ever worked at McDonald's or know someone else who has or does, then you'd probably know a lot of their salads are frozen/refrigerated compared to a food stylist who would have access to the freshest ingredients that haven't been frozen. You could quite clearly see the food stylist laying out several pieces of cheese on a plate, several pickles and carefully placing where the sauces went. The meat looks bigger because it was lightly seared in a pan and most likely not ingestible. Everyone knows meat shrinks when you cook it and you can see the stylist cooking the patty in a pan, and then holding it on a George Foreman looking grill, making sure it browned evenly. The bottom line is: nothing ever looks the same as it does in an advertisement and the fact that people still complain and bring this up amazes me. We live in a society where nothing we see in magazines, TV, the Internet or newspapers is real most of the time.
- bozzie123 14y agoProps to macdonalds for this
- mark_story 14y agoI like that the video was filmed on Dundas west + Roncesvalles in toronto. McDonald's is one of the few fast food joints around there surrounded by an amazing selection of much nicer eats.
- soldermont001 14y agoOn a hot summer day I ordered an ice cream cone at a random McDonald's in Vienna, and when it didn't look as enticing as the picture, I expressed a child like disappointment. They immediately took it back and made me another one that looked like the picture. That made it taste even better. On the other hand, also in Vienna, in winter I ordered a bagel and asked if they could toast it for me. The lady responded in a strong Russian accent "Das ist ein kalt produkt!" No amount of persuasion or rationalizing could get her to put the f'ing bagel in the f'ing toaster right behind her. ;-)
- idleloops 14y agoHottie shows manufactured burger.
- spython 14y agoOh I like the "sloppy" feel of this video - showing other members of the film crew in the background, microphone in the car and careless camera movements. While those are normally errors that are easy to avoid, in this case it communicates a live, not staged feel, and by extension - honesty. Pretty well engineered, though the excessive color grading diminishes the effect a bit.
- arthurbrown 14y agoThis is a segment from an Australian show (The Gruen Transfer) going over the same question without the transparent Maccas bias. The entire clip from the beginning is worth a watch and talks about the value of relentless advertising. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WUhrIOqdCs#t=3m45s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WUhrIOqdCs#t=3m45s
- mkramlich 14y agoAnecdotal but related: over the last few years I've noticed a trend where I've been appreciating Chipotle more and more, and liking McDonald's less and less. At Chipotle's I can count on getting healthy fresh natural-tasting food fast, clean tables, and lots of good looking women among fellow customers. At McDonald's I increasingly experienced unhealthy stale, artificial/chemical-tasting food (sometimes fast, sometimes slow), with dirty tables, dirty drink stand areas, dirty bathrooms, sometimes no mirrors, flies common, and lots of fat or ugly women, and slobs of all genders/ages in general. And the price of a meal is roughly the same, order of magnitude-wise. And because of the indoor playground, more frequent cases of kid's screaming or being obnoxious -- though it sometimes happens at Chipotle too, just not as much. Oh and the music would be better at Chipotle too. So it really became a no-brainer for me which to choose whenever I needed a fast meal and didn't want to make something. Chipotle isn't perfect (I've identified about 4 things they could do better, in my book) but they've come closer to perfect, in the fast food space, than any other business I've seen. I'm glad McDonald's is (hopefully) losing in the marketplace and on Wall Street, and Chipotle the opposite. It (should be) all about the customer and the end-user experience, and this should be reflected in revenue and stock price trends, in a fair system. I've never expected their burgers to match their ads, but I do expect them to taste good, and not provide a disgusting dining room experience. Life's too short for otherwise.
- knz 14y agoMcDonalds was a major investor in Chipotle from 1998 until 2006. If I recall correctly, Steve Ells (the founder of Chipotle) has said that this was one of the major reasons for the success of Chipotle. Personally I think the fact that Chipotle produce the food in front of you also contributes to the sense that it’s fresher than other fast food alternatives.
- modernerd 14y ago"Food stylists" have a fascinating but somewhat tedious job. I have watched one insert a cocktail stick into thousands of flakes of individual oatmeal in order to "plump them up" for a video shoot. Food in commercials is treated like an actor. It is styled, staged, and post-produced to show it at its best. Food stylists are just as talented as traditional cosmetic artists, but few people seem to know they exist. It was good to see McDonald's revealing a little of their work here.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- theDaveB 14y agoI remember the first time my mum took me too a McDonald's and I got a big mac. When she bought the tray of food over, I though my big mac must be split into 2 cartons and I have to stack them myself. Little did I know my big mac was not going to be this massive burger I had seen in the adverts. My uncle once complained saying the burger he received looked nothing like the one displayed on the menu, he got a full refund. Dave
- UTHorsey 14y agoI don't know if this has already been mentioned, but they didn't fully cook the burger. They just browned the sides for the photos, which gives it a much fuller look. Sure they may use the same ingredients, but the burger in the photo shoot will surely make you sick.