I noticed this in fast food commercials so now you have to notice it, too.

[Michael_in_TX]

I do not know why I latched on to this a few days, but I now can't unsee it in any fast food commercial that features someone about to eat a burger. Let's take a screenshot from a McDonald's ad:



Looks like a nice juicy burger. But wait, look at how she is holding it. No one holds a burger like that! You can't eat a burger like that! Obviously, this is done so that the most product is visible to the camera, but it results in the most impractical hand position (unless you like biting your fingers).

Here's a shot from a Whataburger ad:



Same thing.

Burger King ad:



Yep, same thing. (I think the man just realized that he can't actually eat it this way lol.)

Now you will notice this in every fast food ad you see. It's wild how ubiquitous it is across brands.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

If you go at least back to the 90s commercials, they kinda did this... they would either have the burger on a table or a straight on shot, but when actors went to take a bite they'd did overhead shots so the buns looked huge However they didn't do about to eat shots like you posted, I suspect it's just a phase in advertising and I'll curse you everytime I see an ad until the trend changes again

[texastweeter]

Thats not a real burger with condiments. Look up how they do things like add glue to look like mayo or white cheese, put cardboard between the bun and patty, use marker to put grill marks on things, lots of crazy stuff.

[Lynn Dollar]

I've no doubt this stuff we see in commercials is far from reality.

And it extends to what we post on media. Kosmos Q tip for taking pics of your barbecued meats ............ he says to hit it with spray butter to make it shine. Looks real juicy.

[texastweeter]

Thats how i catfished Amanda and got her, spray butter... Lynn Dollar

[Troutman]

Hey watch it buster, I happen to like the Whataburger cardboard special with fake meat, glue and painted on cheese. Definitely a winner in my house

[SheilaAnn]

What was once seen……

[Donw]

What is amazing to me is that you watch commercials at all. 🤯
I never watch anything live anymore but just record everything for later watching on my schedule.
Then it’s just a press of a button to skip all the commercials breaks.
If some streaming service shows ads I just pay the little extra for the ad-free subscription.

[Panhead John]

What Donw said…..I rarely have to watch commercials having a DVR. For football games I’ll record them and start watching 30-45 minutes after kickoff.

[Huskee]

I'm with you. I only see commercials against my will in waiting rooms etc, even then I try with every fiber of my being to ignore them.

[Michael_in_TX]

I meet once a week or so with some friends at a bar and the commercials are inescapable. (And that they all use volume compression is extremely noticeable. You almost have to stop talking when they air.)

[realdocBBQ]

What is amazing to me is that you watch commercials at all. 🤯
I never watch anything live anymore but just record everything for later watching on my schedule.
Then it’s just a press of a button to skip all the commercials breaks.
If some streaming service shows ads I just pay the little extra for the ad-free subscription.

^^^^This x eleventy billion.


But... I will say, I didn't think there was ANY streaming service where you could pay to go completely commercial free? At all. Like.. yes, they have different 'tiers' where you may get LESS, but even then you can't skip them completely. I tried YouTube TV for a day... left it and came back a few days later... and it absolutely pissed me off. I deleted it. They're still bombarding me with emails trying to get me to come back (it was the 'free trial' thing), of course, but no way. There was no way to avoid commercials. In fact, on one show, I missed something that was said - couldn't understand it, or was looking off at something else, whatever - and I decided to skip back like 10 seconds to try to catch what I missed, and it triggered a set of commercials! I was flabbergasted, so I tried it a couple other times on different shows, these were ones supposedly on my 'DVR' feature that I had set to 'record' - which really doesn't obviously, it just stores the instance in your library so you can select it for streaming. Every time, if I tried to skip back more than like 5 seconds, it triggered a whole new set of unskippable commercials.

It was at that point I gave up on streaming altogether. No way I'm paying for 5 different services with a ton of s*** I will NEVER watch or care about, so I can digitally 'DVR' a couple of shows. Screw that.

So I have my own solution, and I store them on my NAS to watch commercial free whenever I want, forever. I realize this doesn't work for most, and takes a lot of setup and I probably spent much more up front and over the years than most people will on streaming, but it works for me. In fact, if I'd been able to convince my wife to drop DISH Network years ago, this WOULD have paid for itself. Alas, it took a long time, but I now have the setup to get whatever I want, essentially automagically, and I finally got rid of that stupid DISH for $150/mo. FINALLY. 20 years or more of paying for that stupid service, and I haven't watched a THING on it in YEARS. But I also ain't paying for Peacock and HBO and Hulu and YouTube and Disney and... blah blah blah.

[dubob]

I don't watch ANY free streaming programs that include commercials and I record ALL of the OTA programing that I like on my Tablo so I can zip through the commercials, The only app that I stream with commercials is Newsmax + and I just mute the commercials and zone out for 4 minutes (average length of commercial breaks). My Netflix & Amazon streaming is almost completely commercial free. Life is good.

[Donw]

On YouTube TV record all the shows you want to see from the channels and watch those recordings and avoid video on demand (VOD) versions which do enforce ad watching. Add channels to your basic lineup including AMC, FX, and the Paramount channels and only record from those. For example I recorded all seasons of Yellowstone one weekend when the Paramount channel had a Yellowstone marathon and spent the next several months watching them all ad free since I could skip all the commercials.

[Uncle Bob]

Good observation Michael. I've noticed they do similar with beverage containers.

I haven't had a McDonald's burger in 40, maybe 50 years so I have no first hand knowledge. Do they actually make beef patties that thick? I thought they had patties that were something like 2 ounces of meat. I know, I know, you can never be cynical enough about commercials...

[RonB]

Most fast food chains serve 2 oz patties for their small burgers, but McD used to serve 1.6 oz patties. That means they get 10 patties per lb as opposed to 8 patties for others. With the number of burgers they sell, that has to really help their bottom line.

Disclaimer: This info is very old and may have changed...

[realdocBBQ]

I had a McD's small burger the other day and made the mistake of picking up the top bun and looking at the actual patty - it was about 2.25" in diameter or so, it seems. Certainly no more than 2.5". Pathetic. I don't eat there much, but in this town where I work, we have VERY limited options - McDs, Sonic, Subway, a convenience store, a grocery with a deli counter - then 3 or 4 somewhat expensive 'trendy' restaurants I seldom visit. Sucks.

[bbq_esq]

Wait until it's just AI actors eating AI food.

[dpearce]

That's hilarious... I read somewhere that they would dip the patty in motor oil. Gives it a real nice shine!

[Ace]

True... But it tastes like my x-wife's cooking however... 😢

[Santamarina]

Holding a burger like that in real life is just asking for everything to shoot out the back of the bun when you take a bite.

Did you want a burger bowl? Because now you’ve got a burger bowl.

[realdocBBQ]

God, my son INVERTS his hand when eating a sandwich of ANY kind. It's the freaking weirdest looking thing, he's eating a burger with his thumb on TOP of the burger, holding it underneath with his other fingers. He says it provides more support for the burger (true) and is a more 'natural' feeling way to hold it. WRONG. Just feckin' WRONG.

I tried to raise that boy right, but damn... some things just won't take.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

One of my sisters eats pizza upside down

[realdocBBQ]

Panhead John handles down? Yes, that's the only way they will go into the silverware holder. lol How do YOU do it?? lol

Or do you eat everything with toothpicks or icepicks? lol

[Panhead John]

Handles up is the only right way! 🥸

[jfmorris]

The closest thing I've seen to some of those burgers are a particular set of "play food" the grandkids play with over here in the play kitchen, where the plastic burger looks really real, as does the sesame seed bun. And it even has rubber tomatoes, pickles, floppy rubber lettuce and floppy American cheese, all made of some kind of silicone. Looks freaking real.

And I cannot unsee that now. All I picture is biting those thumbs that are towards the person holding the burger, blocking your first bite....