It’s no secret that advertising is frequently deceptive. After all, ads are meant to sell you a product, and reality is rarely enticing enough to convince you to pull out your wallet. This is especially true when it comes to fast food items. Justin Chimienti realized this when he bought a McDonald’s Big Mac and a Wendy’s Bourbon Bacon Cheeseburger only to find that the burgers were significantly smaller than he had been led to believe. That’s why he’s suing these chain restaurants.
Last Tuesday, Chimienti sued McDonald’s and Wendy’s in Brooklyn federal court. He claims that they are defrauding customers with deceptive ads that misrepresent that actual size of their burgers. Chimienti says that these fast food restaurants use photos in which their beef patties appear 15% to 20% larger than they actually are, to be exact.
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How do they make the burgers larger in ads? Interestingly, Chimienti believes the beef patties in these photos are undercooked. Once cooked, Chimienti claims the meat will shrink as much as 25%. He even used info from a food stylist to back up these complaints, noting that she said she frequently uses undercooked patties when working on ads for McDonald's and Wendy's.
In addition to the fact that the burgers appear bigger in advertisements, Chimienti says Wendy's adds significantly more toppings to their food as well. No kidding—we've definitely had our fair share of sad-looking burgers!
Chimienti's lawsuit asks that the companies provide "unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for alleged breaches of contract since May 2016 and violations of consumer protection violations of consumer protection laws nationwide," Reuters reports.
This lawsuit rides on the heels of another one filed against Burger King in Miami, which also claims that the fast food restaurant misrepresents the size of their burgers in ads.
The complaint says that this type of deception is "especially concerning now that inflation, food, and meat prices are very high and many consumers, especially lower income consumers, are struggling financially."
So, will we soon start seeing realistic-looking burgers in commercials? We're interested to see how things play out!
