By Zanub Saeed
McDonald's, in a surprise turn, revealed how they style the burgers they use for marketing, as opposed to how they are actually found when consumers purchase them.
McDonald's released a new video featuring how they create the burger seen in a commercial or billboard ad, noting how much juicer and filling the bigger advertised is compared to what is bought at the store.
The director of marketing for McDonald's in Canada, Hope Bagozzi, released the video and explained why the burgers were shown as they do in advertisements, said a new report from CBS's Chicago affiliate, in a response to a consumer's inquiry.
Bagozzi used the Quarter Pounder as an example of how McDonalds' foods get enhanced for television. One of the photographers from the Watt International Photo Studios, named Neil, according to CBS, took a photo of a Quarter Pounder bought from an actual store, and by using the same lighting and angles; they compared it with the sandwich created by the Watt Food stylists that make burgers for the big screen. The burger made for advertisements apparently take hours to put together.
"We want to be able to show the pickles and the condiments as we build," Neil said in the video.
The difference between the burgers bought and advertised is that the former's ingredients are hidden underneath the buns, while the promotional burger has all of its condiments and extras, like cheese and pickles, sticking out of the bun for all to see, so customers know what's in them when they are making ordering decisions at the chains.
"Because we are in a one-dimensional world with the camera, everything is in the back in a picture. I don't know what's actually in it," Noah, a food stylist, said in the video. "At least this way we can tell people, you have ketchup, you have mustard, you have two pieces of cheese."
There is a bit of photo-adjustments done once the burger is made, via technology like Photoshop, to remove any imperfections from the bun, as well as highlight colors of ingredients, said CBS.
