The Innovation Diaries

Familiar territory to anyone who remembers Michael Douglas ordering a “sorry, miserable, squashed” Whammy Burger, it’s worth checking out one man’s continuing mission to divide fiction from reality in the world of fast food. It’s a simple concept really - buy something from your local McDonalds, Burger King, KFC or other fast food outlet, take a picture of it, and compare it to the same item displayed the company website or point of sale imagery. The differences are staggering, and immediately lead you to wonder why consumers would accept such skulduggery …

It got me thinking on the role of honesty in business, and the moral conundrum faced by people who deal in deception. Food stylists operate in a arena where their primary objective is to make food look “hyper-real”, a level of smoke and mirrors which lead to what you are sold being so far removed from what you are promised that it surely damages the integrity of the company.

The idea of how a burger should look to a six-figure earning Marketing Director is a world apart from that of the 18 year-old college dropout, a young kid who is toasting buns for the minimum wage. The company themselves charge must hold themselves accountable for the deception inherent in their field and make choice: do you place advertising with the imagery as the product is sold, or do you ensure such a high level of quality control that every burger that comes across the counter is worthy of a soft-lighted hall of fame photograph?

Finally, to take a step back - is this an issue just related to food itself? How easily could this argument be applied to the advertising industry as a whole? In how many areas are we willing to accept deception as the norm - I’m thinking of whitening toothpastes, anti-aging creams, hairloss products …