There's a Spiritual Lesson in Here, Somewhere

Thanks to this guy, apparently named Jeff, whom I know nothing about, for taking these pictures.  He deserves an award. (HT:  The Brilliant Fayola) 

Nothing was altered.  This is the pic of the advertised food, and then what you actually get. 

Spiritual Lesson #43412134:  Those food-photographer guys?  Geniuses.

Arby's Beef-n-Cheddar

The KFC Bowl of Vom -- excuse me -- "Famous Bowl"  (...of Vomit)

McDonald's Sausage Burrito

Wendy's Taco Salad

Burger King Enormous Omelet Sandwich

Comments

[Monica Battaile]

(Baaaarrrrffff...HORK!)

(Cough, cough...)

I am truly nauseated now. It's like a car wreck...I have to keep looking at the pictures to see how bad it truly is...

But keep in mind Brant, you won't get E.Coli from these lovely non-food products. :)

[Dwain]

So you've never heard of the "Food Stylist"? Here's some more fun info on making that perfect appearing food :

http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks/foodadtricks.html

Mmmm... I'm thinking a job criteria for this position would be : "You were the kid eating the paste in the back of the classroom." Mmmm... Elmer's = Smackalicous

[Angie]

Brett, your blog always makes me laugh, makes me think, and brings me a lot of joy. This made me laugh out loud. Thank you for the smile, from a sister in Christ.

[Mary]

It's because the advertising pictures are of plastic food. :)

[brody Harper]

Thanks Brett.

[DLE]

A couple comments:

If they wrap any of these items, the buns will smoosh from the combination of the wrapper's pressure and the heat and steam from the hot product. That's not deceptive, but just the way it is. To be a fair comparison, the photos should be of unwrapped items. If you don't like the way your food looks at the restaurant, you can always request it be left unwrapped. I can promise you that the Arby's Beef & Cheddar looks much nicer that way.

Same goes for the cheese. If you add hard cheese to a hot product, it eventually melts. Some might see that as a good thing.

The Wendy's salad does look darned similar to the ad, with the exception that the cheese melted (or was not added.)

Also, the poor lighting in the "bad" examples makes a difference. Light them the same and you'll see the "bad" images look a lot better.

When all is said and done, the examples above are far from the worst I've seen. If you want egregious examples, check out any of the sub sandwich purveyors. Their subs never even come close to resembling the subs in their ads.

[RC of strangeculture]

That's truly disgusting...and just think the mind thinks it's eating the picture not what's in front of the face...and only in a comparison like this do we realize how disgusting this food really is.

I thought the KFC bowl looked gross before...the real-deal is horrifying.

I certainly have no problem saying "no" to fast food! Ugh!

[Jon Swerens]

Actually, I think the food stylists must use real actual ingredients when photographing food that will be for sale.

But the photo of splashing milk on your box of cereal? Take a good look at that and imagine it's actually molded plastic. Because it probably is. They can make the milk plastic because they're not selling milk, they're selling cereal.

[Lisa]

I have to say, the Famous Bowl of Vomit looks exactly as I expected.

[g8r Matt]

I think that I am going to go throw up now...if I can just stop laughing long enough to do so...Does anyone want to meet at Arby's for lunch?!

[RevJeff]

Don't bother me I'm enjoying my breakfast barf-ito..

[Brant]

I seriously heard the "milk splashing into the cereal" is actually a thick white paint.

Yes, the wrapper can smoosh a bit, but I have never -- never -- had any fast food that resembles the pictures on the left. Ever.

DLE, the original dude had a pic of the subway sandwiches, and there was a marked difference, as you say.

[Seth Ward]

Yes but couldn't you do the same kind of comparison with other things we buy all the time? Like say... underwear? For instance, I buy the underwear that happens to have a perfectly fit dude modeling in the picture.

Then I put the underoos on and well... that picture is a little misleading in its promises. I mean, I didn't look down and find the perfectly chiselled abs that I had hoped for when I bought them.

Touche.

[markfrench]

I had yet to see an actual vomitous-er, Famous Bowl, untill now. Thanks, Brant...for stealing my innocence.

[Alexis]

LOL These are wild photos. Makes me wanna go out for sure! LOL TY!!!

[MamasBoy]

The sausage burrito in the advertising picture looks too fake. I'd be afraid to eat it. The real food picture is much more to my liking. Of course, Twisters, Golden Pride, Bumble Bees and other joints make much better breakfast burritos than McDonald's, but they all look about the same to me once they get a tortilla wrapped around them.

MB

[Steve_11]

Thre is another genre of food which begs a similar analysis. Most of us will likely deny procurement or consumption of said product.

TV dinners.

Open the box, set it aside and heat the tray. Peel back the plastic and compare it to the image on the box. It makes you want to eat the box instead.

I don't mean the high falutin' (and extremely high fat) Marie Calander's. I mean your Banquet, Patio, Blackhawk, and store brand varieties. Ack!

[Fajita]

Thanks for the nastification of foodness here. I had to to you because of all this.

[Steve_11]

Brant - an alert reader wants you to know that the #1 Christian radio station, your former employer, has swiped you material.

http://www.ksbj.org/eblogs/morningShow/?p=50

I presume you shot these photos yourself - or did you swipe it from someone else?

Not to go all legalist in you, but "Thou shalt not steal"...

[Brant]

Yeah, they swiped it.

Normally, in friendly web-land, they should link back to me as attribution, but that's okay. (As I did in my post.)

I actually really love both those people, so I give them a pass.

I actually get more radio stuff ripped off than web stuff, which is a little more frustrating. But I've copied CD's before, used Kazaa, and downloaded (illegally) showprep material from a pay service. (That's stealing, folks. I wound up personally contacting the guy who owned the service, in another state, and confessing and apologizing. He was incredibly cool about it.) All this to say, not much grounds to get judgmental, and in this case -- they're friends.