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They look deliciously tempting: stacks of crunchy lettuce, juicy tomato and tasty meat towering between freshly toasted golden buns.
But in the world of fast food burgers, what you see is not - by any stretch of the imagination - what you actually get. If you've ever been sorely disappointed about the jumble of meat, limp lettuce and mushy tomato you actually receive when ordering one of those mouth-watering treats, you are not alone.
The US Advertising Standards Agency criticised Burger King this week for giving viewers a false impression of the size of its signature Whopper burger. The Independent newspaper reported that a television commercial made the burger appear much larger than it actually was, and the fast food giant was banned from using the commercial again.
And our own inquiries into the advertised pictures of burgers and the actual products has revealed a very large gap between the two. We visited Auckland outlets of leading international fast-food chains KFC, McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's and bought one of their most popular burgers at lunchtime on a weekday.
A Big Mac from McDonald's, a Double Whopper from Burger King, a Big Bacon Classic from Wendy's and a Works burger from KFC were bought, ranging in price from $4.60 to $6.70.
In pictures, the burgers are carefully manicured: the lettuce is a vibrant green, the onion rings are perfect, and the whole burger appears to glow with tasty goodness. In reality, all the burgers were squashed, ingredients were haphazardly put in, veges were dull - and most of the food was falling out of the buns.
Food writer Jennie Milsom said that there were many tricks used in food photography that affected how the product looked on the page.
Milsom said that oil was brushed over food to enhance shine, or a mixture of washing-up liquid and boiling water could be used to "give a good gloss". It would also be common practice to spritz all the vegetables with water to make them appear fresh and to use reflectors for extra light.
A shot of one product for an advertising or packaging photograph could take an entire day or more, Milsom said. "There is a lot of work that goes into making [the product] look picture perfect."
A spokesperson for McDonald's likened its burgers to actors. "When we film or photograph our food, naturally we want it to look as good as it can - just as actors want to look as good as they can on camera.
"While every care is taken in the presentation of our food at these restaurants, there may be differences between how our food looks under studio conditions and how it looks in a busy restaurant due to natural variability."
Deborah Battell, director of fair trading at the Commerce Commission, said the commission did receive complaints from customers that food did not look like they expected from advertising or packaging. However, she said, most customers would probably understand that the food had been styled to look more appetising and substantial than it really was.
"When it comes to some of the more well-known fast-food outlets, we expect that most people would have had sufficient experience of the products not to be misled."
KFC emphasised that it photographed real products and said it used "high quality, clear images with the ingredients clearly positioned, so that the customer can easily see the difference between the various products."
A Wendy's spokesperson said the company believed the "pictured products in our stores accurately reflect the high quality taste of our burgers". Burger King did not return our calls.
