![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/why-your-burger-may-not-always-look-like-the-advert/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/130957436_img_20160406_225655.jpg&description=Image source, Chris Image caption, Self-confessed "burger guy" Chris says he sometimes feels conned by the food he is served Chris is a big burger fan. He'll get one on the way home if it's late. Or for dinner with the kids. Or sometimes just for a quick snack to fill a hole. Yet more than once he has found himself sending pictures of his dinner to friends and fellow burger-lovers, so they can laugh over them. The difference between what is advertised and what comes over the counter just seems so huge. "Most of the time it looks like it has been sat on," he says. "You feel like you've been ripped off," says the 42-year-old from south London, who preferred not to give his surname. "But who's going to embarrass themselves by going back to complain? You just swallow it." Image caption, Chris is often disappointed by burgers that look like they've been sat on Burger King has said the burgers it sells do not have to look "exactly like the picture" and that all the products featured in its advertising materials are "the same burgers served to guests all across the UK". But diners sometimes feel the gulf between the image and what is served stretches credulity. Disgruntled customers cite other examples: ice cream is shown with whole almonds but contains only shavings, pizza toppings are meagre, salads pricey but pitiful. Amy Wardle, head of New York and Philadelphia-based food styling company Astir, says there's a rule of thumb that pictures promoting food should not contain ingredients that aren't in the product itself. But that still leaves room for manoeuvre. If you are promoting bread, you can put sponges between slices to give the sandwich a fuller look, she says. To make a slice of pizza have the right "cheese pull" effect you might need to add extra cheese taken from several identical pizzas. Cereal can be pictured in a bowl of glue, because that makes it less soggy than using milk. Burgers in advertising images, says Ms Wardle, often have "scaffolding" made of toot){kind=link}
Chris is a big burger fan. He’ll get one on the way home if it’s late. Or for dinner with the kids. Or sometimes just for a quick snack to fill a hole.
Yet more than once he has found himself sending pictures of his dinner to friends and fellow burger-lovers, so they can laugh over them. The difference between what is advertised and what comes over the counter just seems so huge.
“Most of the time it looks like it has been sat on,” he says.
So when he heard Burger King customers in the US were taking the company to court it struck a chord.
“You feel like you’ve been ripped off,” says the 42-year-old from south London, who preferred not to give his surname. “But who’s going to embarrass themselves by going back to complain? You just swallow it.”