McDonald's Explains Why Food Looks So Much Better in Ads

We've never really wondered why food in advertising always look better than the real thing. Because we've been in the advertising business for, well, ever, we learned early on nothing in advertising looks like its real-world self, especially food. But not everyone has this knowledge so it is without surprise people always wonder why there food always looks so much better in an ad than it does in real life.

McDonald's Canada, in a not so surprising breath of fresh transparency (after all, it is the hey day of social media and full disclosure), decided to answer that question with a video explaining the preparation process food goes through when it's going to appear in an ad.

McDonald's Canada Director of Marketing Hope Bagozzi takes viewers through the process; first buying a Quarter Pounder with cheese and then visiting the production studio that shoots the food for McDonald's Food advertising.

The Quarter Pounder purchased in the store doesn't look all that bad but you can't see everything that's in the sandwich. At the photo studio, Watt International, we see how the food is cooked, placed and post-produced so that it can be portrayed in an appetizing fashion.

Nothing really wrong with making a product look it's best, right? Or is there?