A U.S. judge has rejected Burger King’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that it cheated hungry customers by making its Whopper sandwich appear larger than it actually is.

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman in Miami said Burger King must defend against a claim that its depiction of Whoppers on in-store menu boards mislead reasonable customers, amounting to a breach of contract.

Customers in the proposed class action accused Burger King of portraying burgers with ingredients that “overflow over the bun,” making it appear the burgers are 35% larger and contain more than double the meat than the chain serves.

  • zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m not overly surprised. I read the article and know the TV ad claims were dismissed, but the currently running TV ad campaign for BK makes their burgers look ridiculously huge - like larger than the entire box a Big Mac comes in.

    Check out the whopper shown at the very start of this ad (screenshot) to see what I mean. When did you last have a burger that was half the width of your torso?

  • catreadingabook@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Umm the actual court order the article refers to is super generous to the plaintiffs lol. Whoever’s representing them made such basic mistakes that I’m not even sure how they passed the bar exam:

    The Plaintiffs’ first cause of action lists–in a single paragraph that spans four pages–fifty
    different state (and DC) consumer-protection statutes.

    (This is a no-no in every federal court in every state.)

    In either event, the Plaintiffs concede that they’ve failed to meet the requirements of Mississippi and Ohio law–even as they ask us not to dismiss those claims.

    (Wtf? lol)

    we agree with Burger King that a reasonable person wouldn’t have interpreted Burger King’s TV and online ads as binding offers.

    (This is well-settled law and taught to most first-year law students.)

  • ryan213@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Isn’t that all fast food advertising?! Or even for advertising. It’s all fake food. Like Photoshop for food. Lol

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    BK’s menu is absolute shite.

    Just get the tiny double cheeseburgers off the saver menu. Two if you want to feel like you’ve eaten something. It’s a fraction of the price and they’re not much smaller than a Whopper Double Angus XXL Megaburger or whatever they’ve named stuff this week.

    The only other thing worth your time is the Bacon Double Cheese XL, and only if it’s on special offer on the app.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I feel like this belongs in !nottheonion.

    Yes. BK is probably sizing the bun-to-patty ratio to make them look and seem larger. They also probably make sure to paint their lettuce green so it looks fresher. Or would, if that weren’t already banned by the FDA.

    • momocchi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The issue here is it isn’t just ratios. The entire burger itself looks far larger in diameter than it is in reality

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        In marketing materials, that’s supposed to happen.

        If they say it’s a 1/4 pound patty… it’s a 1/4 patty even if the photo is a 1/3 pound patty. Or it’s not then the lawsuit has merit.

        The pictures are allowed to be misleading

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It depends on your perspective. From a consumer protection stand point, sure, marketing based entirely on all the faults of the product might be helpful. “our burgers are designed to be unsatisfying, to make you buy more. they’re loaded with fat and butter and other kinds of fat, and the buns are incredibly sugary to make you addicted and make up for the utter lack of real flavor… and it’s not even entirely beef in that there patty” isn’t really going to sell many burgers.

            So from a marketing perspective it is bad. Saying “oh, the photo on the menu makes it appetizing, when it’s not really appetizing” is like… Saying “OH. our photographers and food modelers did a good job!” to them. and that, whether you like me or not, is why you really need to read the menu instead of looking at the advertisements. Whose beef patty is probably made of painted mashed potatoes, painted up in lacquer because it’s hard to keep food fresh enough to get a good photo…

            • 2ncs@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              read the menu instead of looking at the advertisements

              The issue is most fast food restaurants use the advertisement photos on the menu. Sorta leads the customer to believe that’s what they are getting (with some tolerance).

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I remember seeing a show when I was a kid made for kids about deceptive advertising (it was on HBO back when HBO was decent) and they had a segment on all the ways they dress food for food ads. It was fascinating. I remember milk was made from Elmer’s Glue, cereal flakes were chosen from hundreds of boxes to find the perfect ones, and ice cream, which would melt under the hot lights if it were real, was made from vegetable shortening.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        oh yeah. Commercial food photography is… a sneaky art. they find textures that are similar and paint them to be what they need. hard gloss like beef juices are lacquer, fruits are made to look fresher with hairspray… and this assumes they’re using fruit at all.

  • 99nights@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I feel like McDonald’s Australia needs this. Everything including the fries is smaller then everywhere else.

  • ivanafterall@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    They should just claim they meant to advertise “big Whoppers” as in “big lies.” Now they were telling the truth. Case over.

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Really wish they sell Whataburger everywhere in the States(especially after that Chicago venture capital bought the chain) , never had the problem of the burger being too small there.

    Burger King (Hungry Jack’s too) should also be ashamed for the sorry excuse of the imitation mayonnaise they use in the Whopper.

    • Swim@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      How has McDonald’s not had a similar lawsuit. They have continuously shrunk the Big Mac until it was a slider, then introduce the grand Big Mac… The original Big Mac.

    • Bizarroland@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Whoppers today are trash compared to the Whoppers of even back in 2007.

      They did something, changed something, went to a different meat combination for their burgers I don’t know what it is but 15 years ago Whoppers were amazingly better than they are today.

      • RegularGoose@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Maybe your tastes have just changed and developed as you got older like everyone does. Whoppers are the same shitty paper thin patties and browning, soggy iceberg lettuce drenched in half a gallon of ketchup and mayo they’ve always been.

    • downpunxx@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      ^looks like we found the king, boys, time we teach this overpricing sovereign a thing or two about value, and bait & switch