I remember seeing an article about this stuff, way back when. I wanna say it was in "3-2-1 Contact," but it's been nearly 20 years.

I think this bitch should be forced to eat that burger.

But when a McDouble only costs $1 I can't find myself complaining. You get what you pay for.

I'd always assumed those "commercial" burgers were made of fake foodstuffs.


...just like the ones they sell. *rimshot*

This is from a series of specials that was produced by HBO called "Buy Me That!" about how advertising dupes kids. I don't know how HBO is now but growing up, they always used to have specials like this and I still really respect them for it.

They talked about things like how "electrolites" in Gatorade basically just meant salt and gave the odds of winning those contests you see on the back of cereal boxes. They even did a piece on the Nickolodean "super toy run" that we all wanted to win when we were growing up.

The best part was that they were all programs geared towards educating kids.

Another part of this episode, this same woman scoops out dyed lard to make strawberry ice cream that doesn't melt under production lights...

I remember reading an article that talked about the same thing, although more generalized for resturants how they prepare their food.

I think mashed potatoes were substituted for ice cream and the "syrup" was motor oil so it could be photographed properly.

Ugh.

Evil

Why the horrible circus music?

It may be raw, full of metal, and speckled with glue, but I want one.

I remember when this show was on HBO -- which reveals all the "tricks" commercials used to sell things to children.

>> ^crillep:
It may be raw, full of metal, and speckled with glue, but I want one.

Brainwashing successful. Proceed to next child...

"This burger doesn't look like the one in the picture!"

"That's because it's a picture, ma'am."

"Well it looks like shit!"

"In 3 hours it's going to be shit, ma'am. Just eat your fucking burger."

that was interesting but i would still eat that burger, pins, dye, cardboard and all

See kids, this is how I lie to you! *Proud smile*

So burgers have fluffers. Who knew?

I bet they do this with CGI nowadays. I don't know whether to feel worse because I'm being lied to more artificially or to feel better because cows aren't being killed only to have their organs made prettier for the camera.

I don't see why this offends the sensibilities of some. You do the same thing these guys are doing. When you go on a date you don't schlep out in sweats covered with mustard stains from your 8-hour World of Warcraft marathon. When you show up for a job interview you don't show up dead drunk from your weekend bender. You put on your best suit, brush up your manners, and step forward on your best foot. Almost everyone past the age of TWO knows very clearly the difference between television and real life. To act all outraged over the advertising practice of making your product look the best it possibly can is just foolish.

^ I think the point is that, by the time they're done, it's not their product anymore.

not their product anymore

A burger is a piece of beef with some vegetables and colored pastes on top which has been sandwiched between a cut roll. That's what the ad shows, what the restaurant prepares, and what the consumer buys and eats. So it IS their product which has been idealized to endure the rigors of a shoot while looking good. Film-makers do what they do and work with the subject to tell a story. In this case, the story is that when you go to the restaurant you will be served a piping hot, delicious hamburger. And that's what you get.

"But boo hoo hoo - I wanted the Hamburger GOD in the ad! Waaaaah!"

I regret having to be the man who shatters your delusions - but TV isn't real life. Oh - and Santa Claus isn't real, the Easter Bunny doesn't exist, and man-made Global Warming is a political hoax.

Actors on TV play a character, and get taped up, made up, slapped into designer clothes, and put on a set with radically different lighting & furnature than you'd experience in a real setting. You don't expect actors to look & act like thier TV show counterparts. So why would you expect the food you see in real life to look EXACTLY like stuff in an ad? The restaurant isn't a million dollar set with lights and that burger you're buying wasn't prepared by a Master Chef from specially hand-picked ingredients. Welcome to planet Earth. :eyeroll: If you're naive enough to think you're going to get that perfectly idealized hamburger GOD for $1.00 at McDonalds, then you really need help.

I'd eat the shit out of that raw, cardboard, pins and toothpicks burger right now. So hungry.

>> ^thinker247:
"This burger doesn't look like the one in the picture!"
"That's because it's a picture, ma'am."
"Well it looks like shit!"
"In 3 hours it's going to be shit, ma'am. Just eat your fucking burger."


3 hours seems very optimistic.

I also remember another show like this.
My favorite trick was how they used white glue to substitute for milk for the shot on the front of the cereal box. Every time I look at a box of cereal, I see glue.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
not their product anymore
A burger is a piece of beef with some vegetables and colored pastes on top which has been sandwiched between a cut roll. That's what the ad shows, what the restaurant prepares, and what the consumer buys and eats. So it IS their product which has been idealized to endure the rigors of a shoot while looking good. Film-makers do what they do and work with the subject to tell a story. In this case, the story is that when you go to the restaurant you will be served a piping hot, delicious hamburger. And that's what you get.
"But boo hoo hoo - I wanted the Hamburger GOD in the ad! Waaaaah!"
I regret having to be the man who shatters your delusions - but TV isn't real life. Oh - and Santa Claus isn't real, the Easter Bunny doesn't exist, and man-made Global Warming is a political hoax.
Actors on TV play a character, and get taped up, made up, slapped into designer clothes, and put on a set with radically different lighting & furnature than you'd experience in a real setting. You don't expect actors to look & act like thier TV show counterparts. So why would you expect the food you see in real life to look EXACTLY like stuff in an ad? The restaurant isn't a million dollar set with lights and that burger you're buying wasn't prepared by a Master Chef from specially hand-picked ingredients. Welcome to planet Earth. :eyeroll: If you're naive enough to think you're going to get that perfectly idealized hamburger GOD for $1.00 at McDonalds, then you really need help.


^It's an interesting argument, but fails on one large point: TV shows and movies aren't directly selling a product. The entire point of a TV ad is to advertise the product which is for sale (i.e. If you give us a certain amount of money, this is the product you will receive). However, it isn't the product you receive is it? Any person who eats at a fast food restaurant can tell you that.

This is why toy manufacturers were made, via court order, to show the hand of the child moving the toy in TV ads and not just show the toy move by itself. It's false advertisement.

This is a damn close parallel to a "magical" flying toy.

Corporations do this kind of thing because it works. If they featured the real front line listless yawnburger in their adverts, would we still buy it? As consumers we have to accept our share of responsibility for corporate ethics. If we don't like the was a company behaves and boycotted their product they'd change their ways pretty sharpish. I hate the way that they try to trick us out of our money, but for the most part in the end we get the corporations we deserve.

TV shows and movies aren't directly selling a product.

Oh-ho-ho-yes they ARE! They're selling you a fake image of life that they want you as a viewer to try and live through vicariously. And you're spending something a lot more valuable than a few bucks. You're spending your TIME. In order to get you to watch their show, they portray a completely unrealistic existence that couldn't possibly happen in reality. They're just like the advertisers, except they're soaking you for time, imagination, and perception of reality instead of a couple bucks for a burger.

I hate the way that they try to trick us out of our money, but for the most part in the end we get the corporations we deserve.

I have never cottoned to this whole 'they trick us into buying stuff we don't want' crud. Baloney. The ad shows a hot, delicious burger. When we go to the restaurant we get a hot, delicious burger. There is no trick. It would be a trick if you went to the Burger King and got a cold, disgusting ball of mucus. But you get what the ad talked about, so I don't see what is to 'hate' here. You hate the fact that they are making you aware of their product? Oh nos!

There was a time when I was younger that fast food burgers were simply awesome (or so I felt.) But today, now that I'm in my late thirties, I myself could make a burger on the grill with grass fed meat and my own spices that not only looks just as good as that, but tastes BEYOND better than any fast food burger.

One of these days I'm gonna make a print of a Wopper from a commercial, bring it into a BK and say 'I want this *showing the picture.* And when a get a thin, sloppy, tasteless shit-burger I'll go 'No, that's not the same as 'this'! I want 'THIS'!'

Then again its not like the overworked underpayed kids that work there can do anything about it.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
TV shows and movies aren't directly selling a product.
Oh-ho-ho-yes they ARE! They're selling you a fake image of life that they want you as a viewer to try and live through vicariously. And you're spending something a lot more valuable than a few bucks. You're spending your TIME. In order to get you to watch their show, they portray a completely unrealistic existence that couldn't possibly happen in reality. They're just like the advertisers, except they're soaking you for time, imagination, and perception of reality instead of a couple bucks for a burger.


That may be true, but they're selling exactly what you see. They sell the unrealistic experience.

It's not like they show a commercial and it's all "drama, beautiful people, and awesome Michael Bay 3D Splosions!" and then during the show it's "yawnfest with C-list actors who just rolled out of bed and special effects by my brother-in-law."

Although I will admit that sometimes movie trailers might be somewhat misleading as to the movie's actual content, which I think would be a more apt analogy.

(Also, does anyone else immediately recall the scene from "Falling Down" when this topic is raised?)

*howto

That may be true, but they're selling exactly what you see. They sell the unrealistic experience.

TV invites you to be a vicarious, passive participant in fiction. The viewer exchanges their time to escape into the experience. In the end, the TV show provides them nothing in return except a temporary cessation of reality. A TV commercial is a 30 second TV show. Like a TV show or movie, you are temporarily supplied with an artificial reality. In this fake reality, everyone is smiling and happy - the setting is perfect - and the food all looks fantastic. Commercials are escapism that do not reflect real life. Everyone knows that.

The only difference here is that in an ad, there is an actual real-world product out there. When a vendor invites you to go visit the local francise and buy a burger there is no implication that you'll be getting the same experience you had in the artificial reality of their ad. I don't expect Ronald McDonald to appear out of nowhere and do tricks. I don't expect hilarious shenanigans to bust my gut when I buy a soft drink. I don't expect a supermodel behind the counter at the car dealership. All they're doing is telling you that you can exchange a few real-life dollars for a real-life product. The artificial reality of the ad accomplishes nothing more except a temporary escape, and then after that you are simply 'aware' that the product exists if you want to buy it. I see nothing wrong with that.

Legitimate restaurants could never get away with half the crap these fast food giants pull, and they probably wouldn't even if they could out of some long-forgotten principle of taking pride in one's own work.

mmm burgers

More like 3 farts and I'm hungry again.

>> ^xxovercastxx:
>> ^thinker247:
"This burger doesn't look like the one in the picture!"
"That's because it's a picture, ma'am."
"Well it looks like shit!"
"In 3 hours it's going to be shit, ma'am. Just eat your fucking burger."

3 hours seems very optimistic.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, December 6th, 2009 10:34am PST - promote requested by MrFisk.

hrm, thats kinda like false advertising