How McDonald’s makes its burgers look delicious in ads [Video]

A split-screen comparison of a store-bought McDonald's Quarter Pounder and one constructed from the same ingredients in a photo studio.

By Tiffany Hsu

June 22, 2012 12 AM PT

That McDonald’s burger from your neighborhood drive-thru is never quite as luscious-looking as its juicy, dripping, not-quite-doppelganger in advertisements.

Now customers can see why in a new behind-the-scenes video produced by the fast-food giant.

Hope Bagozzi, director of marketing for McDonald’s Canada, walks viewers through the studio magic used over several hours to plump and primp a Golden Arches burger to its mouthwatering max.

First, Bagozzi picks up a Quarter Pounder with cheese -- likely made within 60 seconds -- from a street-side McDonald’s for comparison. The “steam effect” from the box “makes the bun contract a bit,” she said.

Then Bagozzi heads to the Watt International photo studio, where the same ingredients are being used to carefully craft a similar burger from scratch.

Then food stylists and photographers labor over the sandwich, melting down the cheese with a warmed knife, strategically applying mustard and ketchup with a syringe, slanting the bun to highlight the ingredients.

“It’s like you’re a surgeon in there,” Bagozzi says at one point.

Final touches next, where colors are digitally enhanced and imperfections in the bun smoothed out on a computer.

The resulting contrast between the burgers, both photographed by the same cameras under the same lighting, is stark. The video has garnered more than 3 million views on YouTube.

McDonald’s Canada -- a separate operation from the fast-food behemoth’s U.S. business -- recently launched a section on its website allowing customers to publicly pose questions.

The video was shot in response to one of them; others include “How much food do you deep fry in a day?” and “Why does it take unnaturally long for your food to spoil?”

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Tiffany Hsu

Tiffany Hsu is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote about the California economy, fast food, restaurants, retail and alternative energy for the Business section. A Bay Area native, UC Berkeley graduate and eternal Nor-Cal fan, she once worked for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She also did a stint at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where she developed a passion for sweet tea. She still has faith that someday she’ll find two economists who agree.