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That said, advertisements should be forced to accurately represent what you’ll be served and not an idealized version of it.

In countries like Japan, this is enforced, and what it looks like on the package has to match what it looks like in real life, down to size and shape. They aren't allowed to "enlarge to show texture" or show it smaller than it is, either.

In most other countries outside the US they are forced to be honest. It's still an idealised version, but you wouldn't be able to get away with showing double meat in Europe.

When I was a kid, HBO did a special for kids about deceptive advertising practices- imagine that today. They did a whole segment on food photography and showed people doing things like making ice cream out of vegetable shortening and food coloring. The whole thing fascinated me.

Edit: Found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaVM2XG4wvE Apparently it was originally a Consumer Reports thing and this is the VHS version. But I saw it on HBO and HBO made a big deal out of it at the time.

Damn... it's amazing how well I remember this despite not having seen it since probably 1990.

If I recall, the rule in the US is that the primary food being advertised must be real food, so cereal might have glue instead of milk, because you're not selling the milk. But you can prop it up and cherry-pick as much as you like.

You could style the meat in your sub to look like the ad... but you'd probably find that you have to stack it all up at the edge.

Yeah, my first thought was the advertisement probably didn't include anything that was actually food.

Of course, the definition of food seems to keep changing as the decades pass by.

Think of all the innovative swindling we could do in an unregulated market! Think of the profits!!!

Talk about false advertising. Tried to order contact lenses on Lens dot com the other day for someone. Advertised price with rebate seemed reasonable. Create account, (as they require that to proceed) go on about choosing options and filling in info.

Only at the last order page, do they tack on $250 of "taxes and fees" (even though it's a medical device so it's not taxed) and then try to explain away in an info widget that taxes are "stuff we may be charged but we're just making up this bullshit number." Oh, and they charge shipping.

1800contacts did not do either of these things. LensDirect seemed equally non-bullshit but their prices were a bit higher.

How many people get scammed by the "taxes and fees" field figuring, "welp, I guess that's just the price of America."?

Edit: de-hyperlinking the lens site, they don't deserve any clicks, only hate.

While I agree with your overall sentiment, an italian sub customized to my preferences from WaWa of all places is effing delicious every last time, and they do not skimp on the quantity of meat.

FWIW, my teenager will only eat meatball subs if it comes to sandwiches (not even PB&J) and only if it comes from Subway.

Sigh.

Yeah, it's not really new. In the movie Falling Down from 1993 (weird, I thought it was late 80s) has the whole scene where he's complaining about the difference between the advert and what you're served in a fast food place (well also that they wouldn't serve breakfast because it was like a couple of minutes late and almost certainly had some still hot breakfast around, but that's another story).

It's been this way for a long time, all over the world. I'd be amazed if this turned into a world changing case after all this time.

serving suggestion. Picture contains ingredients from 8 actual sandwiches

She should have went to Arby's.

Arby's | We Have The Meats