Advertising - a case study
Have you ever ordered a hamburger at a fast food restaurant and been disappointed with the result? Somehow it just doesn't look the same as the mouthwatering hamburgers used in the advertising. It's also not limited to just one fast food chain. The majority of fast food advertising doesn't seem to be truly representative of the finished product.
To illustrate this I decided to conduct an experiment. I would purchase a Big Mac from McDonald's and compare it to what was advertised. If there were any discrepancies then these would be noted down and forwarded onto McDonald's. Shown below is a photo of the hamburger I bought compared to what was advertised. It is not difficult to tell which is which (the advertised one is on the right).
One is an advertising photo while the other photo was taken from a finished product. Can you tell which is which?
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Since I believed that there were some differences between the burger I purchased and what was advertised I sent the following e-mail to McDonald's.
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I recently purchased a Big Mac from a New Zealand McDonald's and I noticed some discrepancies between what I received and what was advertised. The differences I found were:
- The meat patties weren't quite as even
- The middle bun has been cut at an angle
- The top bun is a little bit uneven
- It was not as high as what was advertised
- Coloring across the buns is uneven (parts are white, parts are brown)
- General presentation is not up to what was advertised
Please note that this is not a general complaint about the Big Mac I received. I have purchased Big Macs before at different outlets at different times and they all struggle to live up to the advertising. What is McDonald's policy that ensures what is advertised is an accurate reflection of what is served?
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A McDonald's customer service representative promptly replied. Below is a copy of their e-mail.
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Thank you for contacting McDonald's New Zealand with your concerns around our advertising.
All items pictured, accurately reflect the specifications of each product. As I'm sure you can appreciate, preparing food in our kitchens has a human element to it, and while we strive to meet our high food presentation and quality standards at all times, sometimes these are not achieved.
Thank you again for your feedback - we have passed this on to our national marketing team for their consideration.
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From this reply we can glean the following facts:
- The advertising accurately portrays the burger specification
- The ability to achieve the burger specification cannot always be met
- Because humans are involved in the cooking process it is inferred that they are to blame.
It's interesting that food presentation and quality standards are mentioned separately. Quality standards can cover a whole range of requirements so for McDonald's to say that they cannot always give you a quality product is a fairly serious admission. Note that at no point did they say that what I purchased was unacceptable and that they would look into it. However if the presentation and quality standards cannot always be met, what about other standards such food hygiene and health and safety?
As a side point if humans cannot reliably produce their hamburgers how did they get the ones used in the advertising? Were trained monkeys used or was laser cutting performed to get that clean cut look? In all seriousness more than likely multiple hamburgers were made and the best bits were chosen from each one. But isn't that cheating? Yes, but McDonald's and other fast food chains will want to present their products in the best possible light. As a result they must skate the fine line between promoting their product and giving an accurate representation of it, and that is called marketing.
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