Burger King’s new commercial shows the time-lapse decomposition of a Whopper

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3mn4x/why-burger-king-is-forcing-everyone-to-watch-a-moldy-whopper-rot

by hawski • 6 years ago

22 27 6 years ago

em500• 6 years ago

The article already includes McDonald's response why its burger didn't decompose (it dries out quickly due to its small size).

If you're skeptical, Serious Eats confirmed this in an experiment: https://aht.seriouseats.com/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisitin...

(A home-made burger of the same size tested under the same condition didn't decompose either. The only thing you need to do to make either the home-made or McD's burger rot is to make sure it doesn't dehydrate quickly.)

NTARelix• 6 years ago

I performed a similar experiment in high school (~2007) but stored it in a plastic bag. After a few months it smelled absolutely horrible so I wrapped it in more bags and kept it hidden in an enclosed space. I decided to open it on the final day of high school about 2.5 years later and to this day I can recall the horrible smell and the texture. It has turned into a black slime as if it had retained or even gained lots of moisture; completely unrecognizable from its original form. Might be the worst smell I can remember to this day. I always heard people say that McDonald's burgers don't decompose, but after that experiment I never believed it because I had proven that it does decompose.

That miscommunication wasn't apparent to me back then, but seems more relevant than ever now. People often like to make bold claims without giving the relevant context or even without actually understanding the context. I see this all the time with news articles or videos making some claim, showing a small bit of evidence, then the information spreads quickly through social bubbles. If I decide to dig through the sources from which the article was derived, I find that there's often a very important piece of context missing. Whether that context was intentionally removed to twist a narrative or if the context was overlooked is not always clear, but it makes it hard to trust so many people and news articles today.

The best remedy for me so far has been to attempt to identify gaps in the knowledge of the people and articles that I'm observing, then try to fill in those gaps.

This article puts to rest my dissatisfaction with the simple claim that they don't decompose because it reveals the primary difference in testing between the conclusions formed by the 2 opposing experiments.

mbubb4• 6 years ago

I read one of Michael Pollen's books on food a few years back and the argument is something along the lines of: "Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants. Avoid 'edible food-like substances'." To my mind that is an argument against something like "impossible burger" as a regular food.

A breakfast of a super-processed, vegan, organic waffle, soy egg replacement and faux bacon is not much better for you than the pancake house originals. If at all. Sometimes it is a fun social thing to get fast food or something off a grease truck. More than once a week or so its not doing you very much good.

There is variety in diet - I find the whole genetic diet idea intriguing. Though right now it is rife with pseudoscience. (I did geno-palate and found it thought provoking.) Different things work for different people - but I would bet Pollen's dicta are a pretty good base to start with and they experiment from.

The cynical side of me things the BK campaign is probably bs. They will figure out another way to give us cancer, heart disease and diabetes. But it is very good to get us to think about what we all are putting in our mouths. Is it really real?

Waterluvian2• 6 years ago

That quote sounds silly to me. What is real food? How much can you handle and manipulate a food until its not real anymore? Can you grind it up and make homemade burgers? Can you add a little bread crumbs to help it bind? Is bread a real food?

thulecitizen5• 6 years ago

Real food is food that has a high nutritional value and is not a processed food.

matthewmacleod• 6 years ago

I think the original quote is simpler: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The essay from the NYT is a good read: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t...

Now, Pollan broadly speaking does get a bit more into what constitutes "food". But I'd argue in general: this is mostly a heuristic. It's not a clear set of rules, because such a thing is likely impossible. And advice of this sort is inherently kinda hand-wavy and (in Pollan's words) "flagrantly unscientific".

That doesn't mean it's useless as a guide – everyone will have a bit of a different view on that. Bread, as something which has been consumed for tens of thousands of years, is recognisable as food. It's got perhaps three ingredients and is minimally processed. Cheese might be similar. Maybe it could be as simple as "something you can reasonably make in your own kitchen", or maybe it needs to be a bit more complex.

The point is – it's too easy to get caught up in litigating the precise meaning of a vague phrase. The intent is clear, and the focus should be more on general diet rather than the needless semantics of "does bread stop being food when I make it into crumbs".

norswap2• 6 years ago

I think the issue is that this is a good heuristic, but a shitty rule.

You'll do well if you follow it, but you can find another set of rules (or heuristics) that you can follow, and you'll do well too despite completely violating that one.

wccrawford• 6 years ago

Most Vegans are not Vegans for the health benefits. They have other reasons.

Likewise, I think most people going after "impossible burgers" aren't doing it because they think it's healthier. (I won't deny that some think that, though.) Some were just trying it out, some were thinking they're saving animals, and yes, a few thought it was healthier in some way. (And in some ways, they probably are, but not in others.)

That said, I don't think "impossible burgers" are "food-like". They are food. Food-like, to me, would be things like gummy bears and Jello. Not only are they oddly manufactured, but they aren't part of a balanced diet. They are pure luxury. Other snacks like potato chips and Cheetos are in this category, too.

If I weren't dieting because I'm overweight (and just a smidgen away from "medically obese", which is less than it sounds but still medically relevant) I'd eat that kind of food all the time. (Thus how I got into this weight situation.)

mbubb4• 6 years ago

Interesting - hadn't considered that idea. I associate vegan diets with the desire for a more optimal diet (thus healthier). The point was not really one criticizing vegans. I think it is very possible today to be plant based and have a rich and health diet. What I was pointing out is that I've noticed a slippery debate tactic where a proponent of one diet will put forth nutrient rich food on their side and "Big Mac" quality food on the opponent's side.

ruminasean• 6 years ago

30 year vegetarian here, not vegan, but I definitely look askance at all the massively processed fake meats. I'll happily eat seitan, but I make my own out of maybe 6 ingredients.

I don't know too many vegetarians who eat them with any regularity...to me, they're more to transition meat-eaters to vegetarianism than anything else. Or maybe something for me to bring to a BBQ so I can not stand out like a sore thumb AGAIN.

mbubb4• 6 years ago

Roast mushrooms, elephant garlic, peppers and eggplant planks are essential at any BBQ! And I say that as a meat eater... Years ago in NYC Chinatown I went to a restaurant called "Vegetarian Paradise" with all sorts of fake meat dishes. It was fun at the time but not particularly good. One notable exception which I have had in other restaurants is mock duck breast with mushrooms layered in sheets of seitan. I've had nice versions of that but yes I'd agree on your assessment.

josefresco• 6 years ago

"A breakfast of a super-processed, vegan, organic waffle, soy egg replacement and faux bacon is not much better for you than the pancake house originals"

Waffle, egg and bacon vs. plant and vegan based alternatives.

Sure about that? Do you have a citation?

thulecitizen5• 6 years ago

Inverting this: for many years Burger King and other fast food chains poisoned people with non-nutritious food [1][2]. Now they want a pat on the back for making nutritious food for the first time.

"“Consuming these preservatives has been shown to increase our risk of colon cancer and should be limited in our diets,” she said."[3]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Lkyb6SU5U

[2] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/101/6/1251/4626878, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6146358/, https://blog.usejournal.com/the-united-states-has-an-epidemi..., https://flo.health/menstrual-cycle/lifestyle/diet-and-nutrit...

[3] https://globalnews.ca/news/5792891/artificial-preservatives-...

wil421• 6 years ago

You could at least put the whole quote from [3].

Are artificial preservatives bad for you?

Some artificial preservatives, such as nitrites or nitrates used in processed meats, have been shown to be bad for our health, Hnatiuk said.

“Consuming these preservatives has been shown to increase our risk of colon cancer and should be limited in our diets,” she said.

However, others have been studied extensively and proven to be safe.

“It really just depends on the specific ingredient in question,” she explained.

She goes on to say:

“Under normal circumstances, if preservatives are only consumed in small quantities, they shouldn’t pose any health risk,” Lui said.

norswap2• 6 years ago

It doesn't matter that people find the moldiness disgusting, as long as people talk about it. Clever.

Also for all the fact that this is a stab at McDonalds, their decision to rebrand to green more than a decade ago (in Europe, and maybe elsewhere?) truly was prescient.

boublepop• 6 years ago

I’m not in marketing sure. But this just seems textbook bad. My takeaway from the add is that burger kings burgers are moldy and disgusting. They might say all pr is good pr, but not when the pr is straight up making people associate your edible product with something they would never in a million years eat.

Burger King’s new commercial shows the time-lapse decomposition of a Whopper

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