UP FRONT EXTRA

Pretty as their picture?

The fast food youre served may look less appealing than advertised
Readers spoke, we listened. After
we published a report about supermarket
foods that bear no resemblance to the
photo on their packaging, some of you
said that we had missed a similar annoyance: fast foods that are less attractive in
person than in their ads or on menus,
billboards, or websites.
I have often felt that the pictures shown
in ads for these companies should use
the actual food they serve, wrote a disgruntled diner, not the dolled-up, completely unrealistic fantasies they somehow
are permitted to display. Another reader
supplied a vivid description: You get a
green tomato, cheese that is on lopsided,
squished; mustard, ketchup all over the
wrapping. In sum, wrote a third, Its a
pain in my posterior.
So we sent staffers to seven fast-food
chains: Burger King, Dunkin Donuts,
McDonalds, Quiznos, Subway, Taco Bell,
and Wendys. They visited two or three
stores per chain, ordered a variety of menu
items, photographed them in a van parked
outside, then compared the reality with
the picture in the website pitch.
Some foods resembled their publicity
shots, but at each chain at least one sample of one menu item didnt. In our small
sampling, Subway sandwiches were the
worst offenders. That would come as no
surprise to some of our readers. As one
said, None of them look like what they
are advertising. Said another: Go to any
Subway store. Order from that nice, beautiful menu board. Then look at what they
shove into the bag they give you.

WHAT
YOU SEE

1 McDonalds
Sausage McMuffin with Egg
THE AD. Its a neat stack of cheese, sausage, and egg.
THE REALITY. Its lopsided and a bit goopy.

WHAT
WE
GOT

Rules of the road food

The FTC should make them toe the

line, wrote a reader from Newburgh,
Ind. Elizabeth Lordan, a press spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission, says that truth-in-advertising laws
do apply when restaurants show menu
items in print and television ads. Although no specific FTC regulations govern the photos that marketers use to sell
food, Section 5 of the FTC Act says that
the net impression of any advertisementwhich includes photographs,
other graphic elements, and textmust
be truthful and non-misleading.

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con s um er r e p o rt s FEBRUARY 2 0 1 4

But the FTC hasnt pursued any cases

alleging that food ads are deceptive based
on photos, Lordan said. That isnt surprising, she added. The commission is
unlikely to take law-enforcement actions
in cases where consumers can easily evaluate the product, its inexpensive, and its
frequently purchased.
We asked each company several questions about pictures vs. reality: Is it realistic to expect served food to match its

photo? Does the company train employees

to make products as pictured? Does it do
quality-control checks? What happens if a
customer complains that food doesnt look
as expected? Only Subway came close to
answering any of them. All Subway menu
items portrayed in our commercials and
marketing materials are made to the exact
specifications as those found at our
26,000+ restaurants, said Cindy Carrasquilla, a spokeswoman.

WHAT
YOU SEE

1 Subway
Chipotle Steak & Cheese with Avocado
THE AD. Its gaping, and look at all that avocado.
THE REALITY. Its swaybacked, and the green is barely seen.
As a buyer of a Subway turkey avocado sandwich told us,
the avocado was spread across the bread, staining the bread
yellowish-green, and it added no measurable depth.

WHAT
YOU SEE

WHAT
WE
GOT
1 Burger

King

Crispy Chicken BLT Salad Wrap

THE AD. The ingredients emerge
from a carefully folded wrap.
THE REALITY. The person who made
the wrap needs an origami lesson.

WHAT
WE
GOT

DID YOU KNOW?

Tricks of the trade

Donna Lafferty has been preparing mouthwatering meals for more

than 30 years, but she isnt a chef. Shes a food stylist, and its her job
to make foods look picture-perfect for the camera. The difference
between me and a chef, says Lafferty, whose long list of clients
includes Chefs Catalog and General Electric, is that my work is
designed to be viewed and sell products. A chef s food is designed
to be eaten. Below are some of her techniques.

Not all of them are used in fast-food adsfake ice cream, for
instance, probably wouldnt appear in menu photos. The restaurants
wouldnt talk to us about their food styling, but McDonalds Canada
produced a video noting that advertised burgers have exactly the same
ingredients as those sold in stores; they just undergo lots of primping,
including moving contents to the front of the bun, using a syringe
to insert strategic dollops of ketchup, and blow-drying the cheese.

How food gets from blah to beautiful

B OTTO M ROW : G E TT Y I M AG E S

Red meat

For presentation
purposes, its barely
cooked (to avoid looking
cremated, Lafferty
says). It gets a rich,
roasted complexion
from a mixture of
Kitchen Bouquet,
a seasoning sauce,
and Angostura bitters.

Fruit

Once it has been

cut, some fresh
fruit quickly dries
out and discolors.
A solution: Paint
on a mixture of
water and a product
called Quick Thick,
which makes
fruit glisten.

Ice cream

The real deal melts,

of course, so
Lafferty creates
a faux ice cream
by mixing sugar,
shortening, corn
syrup, and coloring.
You might not
want to eat it, but
it can be scooped.

Breakfast sandwich

Lafferty often has to sort

through lots of buns to find
nicely colored tops and
bottoms that match. As
for wraps, to keep them
from drying out, shell apply
a thin layer of Vaseline. To
keep them from unraveling?
She makes a paste from
flour and water.

Meatball sub

The challenge is to
keep red tomato sauce
from staining the bread
and making it soggy.
Laffertys solution: a
barrier of clear spray.
For pizza, a clothes
steamer imparts
a fresh-from-theoven look.

FEBRUARY 2 0 1 4 C o n su m e r R e p o rt s. o rg

13

UP FRONT EXTRA PRETTY AS THEIR PICTURE?

WHAT
YOU SEE

WHAT
WE
GOT

HI-RES TK
1 Taco

WHAT
YOU SEE

Bell

Gordita Supreme, Beef

THE AD. Round bread is stuffed with meat thats topped by vegetables.
THE REALITY. Misshapen, blemished bread and some veggies.
But to quote an ad from another fast-food chain, wheres the beef?

WHAT
YOU SEE

HI-RES TK

WHAT
WE
GOT

WHAT
WE
GOT

1 Wendys

1 Dunkin

Donuts

Wake-Up Wrap with Bacon

THE AD. Theres egg, cheese, and bacon. Whats not to like?
THE REALITY. Calling all ingredients to the front!

WHAT
YOU SEE

HI-RES TK

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co n sum er r e p o rt s FEBRUARY 2 0 1 4

Daves Hot N Juicy -pound Single with Cheese

THE AD. Melted cheese sits atop a charbroiled meat
square that extends over the buns edge, with red
tomato and a full lettuce leaf.
THE REALITY. The beef doesnt overlap the bun, the
lettuce is shredded, and the cheese is almost invisible.
As a reader griped about all fast-food joints,
Sometimes my burger looks like a person put it
together while wearing a blindfold.

WHAT
WE
GOT

1 Quiznos
The Traditional
THE AD. The loaf is
so full you might have
to unhinge your jaw.
THE REALITY. Well, at
least the bread is thick.