Many times fast food advertising companies find different ways to mislead customers. Many would claim these advertisers are using false advertising to sell their products. Not many people are aware or understand the meaning of false advertising. The legal definition of false advertising is the act of knowingly advertising a product or service that does not exist or does not function as represented. What is not understood by the general public is that false advertising is a crime that can be punishable if proven guilty.
What fast food advertising actually does in their ads is they deceive you. By this I mean they mislead by false appearance or statement. Now that sounds like the ads you see on television. You would think just something as simple as the size of burgers in ads and the size they actually are is the only thing that is misleading. There are several different ways in which fast food deceives you. The purpose of this blog is to show the many different ways fast food misleads or deceives its customers. I will focus on how the food is prepared when it is filmed for commercials, how the message they portray is never what the employees at these restaurants trained to do and how even certain fast food chains mislead with their nutritional facts.
One of the biggest ways fast food corporations deceive their consumers is through visual false advertisement. Most people would agree that the pictures of food that are shown in television advertisements look infinitely more delicious than the food that is actually served looks. When watching a commercial for a big, meaty, juicy cheeseburger, with the ketchup and mustard oozing out in just the right amount, one’s mouth starts watering just looking at the picture on the television screen. However, when you go to the restaurant to buy that same cheeseburger, it is usually small, thin, and just thrown together pell-mell. Although the fact that pictures of the food are deceiving is common knowledge, what is not common knowledge is how much work goes into making the food look so irresistible on television.
There are people known as food makeup artists or food stylists, and their job is to make the food look absolutely scrumptious for the television advertisements. Shooting food is one of the hardest tasks for a photographer - hot food will cool, frozen food will melt (even more quickly than normal under the hot lights), moist food will become dry, fruit will become brown, and vegetables will wilt. To rise to these challenges, food artists use many different tools to ensure the look of delectability during the entire shoot.
Some of the tools include motor oil, a blow torch, glycerin, detergent, cotton balls, spray deodorant, hairy spray, spray fabric protector, toothpicks, safety pins, tweezers, a large syringe, brown shoe polish, incense sticks, white glue, paper towels, and sturdy cardboard. Each of these tools has a special way of tricking the naked eye. For example, motor oil is used as a shooting alternative for un-photogenic syrups. Cotton balls are used to created the illusion of steaming hot food after being soaked and nuked in the microwave. Spray fabric protector is used to stop the motor oil from soaking into the pancakes, which have blueberries strategically safety-pinned to them. Toothpicks and safety pins are also used to hold the ingredients together in those tall, fluffy burgers and sandwiches that we salivate over so often. The large syringe is used to create the busty meat look it squirts mashed potatoes under the skin of the poultry, which is then torch cooked.Detergent is used to make bubbles when shooting beverages. The cardboard is cut up into small squares to lay between the bun and hamburger so the grease and juices do not soak into the bread, making it soggy after the sesame seeds have been glued on. Wowzers!!! The Hypocrisy of Fast Food.
-Renix Graham, III
"Water is the only drink for a wise man." - Henry David Thoreau
