A German website, Pundo3000.com, has conducted a study of 100 different products by comparing the look of the products as shown by the packaging with the actual contents inside the boxes. Quoting the website, which is in German: “All products were purchased, the packaging photographed and the contents prepared and photographed too. All products were then eaten up.” and also: “The purpose of the project is not to discredit any brands or products but to critically compare the packaging advertising with the inside contents”.
Photo: Pundo3000.com
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Oh thank you! This is why we don’t take these clients!
all the crap we eat…
Personally on the fish sticks, I think the real stuff looks better than the photo. Oh, and the Milkas chocolate is heavenly.
However, the rest is crap.
I always am intrigued how products often look so very different than the photo or the commercial! Sometimes, it is straight trickery!
Great post!!!
Kimberly Edwards
http://CookingWithKimberly.com
Ive wanted to eat recently… now i dont definitely…
Say what you want about Americans, but at least we have the sense not to buy half of that stuff. I thought Europe was the birth place of fine cuisine…that stuff looks like crap. Bon appetit
Congratulations! We’re CRAP EATERS!!!! We eat that shit! )))
Nooo, i dont it this crap)) i cook myself
WTF? A hot dog in a granola bar…?
In fact I`m European and i dont eat this kind of food, In Southern Europe generally we cook at home even if we are single like me and the great majority of my friends.
As European these photos dosn`t affect me at all.
It was in fact a surprise when i read the post of Theo saying how healthy is American Cuisine thats why americans are so skinny and healthy (see the reports on obesity in USA),
from this moment i`m going to eat only american cuisine………..bon appetit pour vous
Great post. I think something like this should be made mainstream. The result being better food or companies who make this crap go out of business. More than once, when buying a hot dog at a convienience store, I have asked the cashier if he would eat that hot dog. When there is a pause or an answer no, then I ask why do you expect me to pay for something that is not edible. Food is bad like this because people accept it. If you get a smashed burger take it back for a refund. Never accept a replacement order, as it may have spit or something in it.
Looks yummy, in my tummy Wish I had some cant wait
And this is why I have become such good friends with my kitchen. At least I know what I am eating. Down with cheap nasty insta food. yuck!
I’m glad I can’t read some of those labels, I can’t imagine the ingredients.
Wow.
I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
The Heringssalat is a truly frightening color of Pepto Bismal.
The Grabower Krüsschen chocolate things of course look better IRL. The rest looks terrible. Bluergh! Awesome post. There’s a reason Germany isn’t renowned for its fine cuisine
Let’s see some photos of beer vs advertising and I bet RL wins out.
this makes me hungry
The Big Mac Ads are at least closer to reality than in Canada.
I wish there was a law to place photos of a serial produced food on its package.
Nick Lapitsky
http://x097.com
Many look like crap, but also it’s very clear that many “real” food product pictures are taken in angle/light it prolly look worst or close to it…
Some of that stuff looks dubious even from the photo. The tub salads don’t do well at all. I wish we had more sausage-based meals in the US..
There’s way too much sauce in the actual food. On the other hand, they’ve shortchanged the creme fillings.
Looks like most of the prepackaged meals are utter crap but some of it doesn’t seem half bad like the fish sticks and some of the chocolates.
@ Theo
To say that americans don’t eat crap is complete BS! It’s just different products, look at any fast food you get and compare it to the pictures, looks nothing like what is advertised. So don’t even try to pull the holier than thou attitude.
makes me grateful for living in a country where “prepared lunches” are nowhere to be found.
we only have industrial-ready-made chicken shnitzels (which, although being processed meat and too fatty, aren’t THAT bad for you), hamburgers and kebabs (which are bad for you…).
how hard is it to cook decent food???
Hey…Food is Food. Just taking on fuel? Want it quick…or good. Choice is yours.
My fauvorites are Maggi and Knorr!
Of course it’s going to look bad if you just leave it sitting in the can and take a picture of it. There was at least a little presentation put into taking the food out of the packaging and putting it on a plate in most of those pictures.
What a fantastic (funtastic?) project!
Kudos to Pundo. Thanks for sharing their work.
Fortunately, I do not eat the terrible food and make all sauces
myself !! I wish my son should not eat all these things too……though he likes my sauces and all the cooking I do, very much…
However, almost all of these products look like their advertising, except color post-production. Exceptions are, of course, sweets, that are designed to be liked by children. Otherwise, the microwave food is pretty much honest in its depiction! I’m hungry right now and i didn’t feel dissgust for one bit, no, I want these pastas and porridges!
I’ve worked in packaging design for over 10 years & the above samples have definitely taken it too far!
I agree with retouching an image within 10 - 15% of the product itself. This is normally to enhance appetite appeal & freshness for colour, not to display something completely different. If you add extra ingredients for the photo shoot the package should say “serving suggestion”, this allows clients to enhance the appetite appeal with garnishes & serve in a nice bowl etc.
Why do clients choose to over promise in photography, it’s just setting them selves up for disappointed unsatisfied customers who won’t come back.
Really !!!
Cool post!
wow…it’s a tie between the Krosser Cheeseburger and the Herring Salad. maybe if those wacky northern Europeans wouldn’t put herring in everything….
A lot of them would look better if they were put on a plate, the way the advertising shows.
Also, almost all of the actual pictures are more blue (and therefore less yellow) than the advertising… that may be due to the advertisers making them more yellow (and therefore more appetizing) or it could be due to the lighting in the actual photography. The food in the actual pictures would look significantly better slightly more yellow.
serving suggestions …
products may differ in colour, size, shape, taste and markings …
In Finland, companies avoid getting prosecuted by saying the image is a serving recommendation of the meal, not what actually is seen inside. This writing is seen in all almost all food packaging.
You are what you eat… no wonder there’s so much Eurotrash
YUK!!!!!!! how gross dose the hacksteaks look!
If we had information like this at the point of purchase it would make it much easier to choose products. I’m surprised how many looked similar to the photos on the packages. Certain foods tend to be processed well, like chocolate, fruit, bread/crackers, and fish sticks. McDonald’s and KFC were very similar too. “5 Horchen” looked exactly the same even. ha. Foods that don’t do well: chunky food in sauces or soups, meats, fish fillets, and frozen meals. good lessons.
I think this shows that packaged food is inferior to meals prepared from fresh ingredients.
i eat some nasty stuff on a regular basis, but even i wouldn’t eat some of those soups.
OMG, do people really eat this crap? It all looks like puke in a cup.
I thought the US had crappy packaged food. Now I feel privileged to not eat the packaged crap in the US.
Wow German food looks fucking gross even when in idealized art form.
I’m hungry… ㅜㅜ
Thanks for trying to load malware from “trustedantivirus.com” on my computer. My blockers stopped it. Assholes!!
hahaha,the big mac looks the same
and thats how we live in a simulation where every thing is for making us slave
You cook yourself? That must be painful.
It is better to dine at home
Surprisingly, some of the companies are pretty honest!
Well, the photo on the package is always marked “Serviervorschlag” (Serving suggestion) as required by German law. Means, not everything you see on the package is actually inside (some decoration may have been added). You CAN make the dish look like the pic. If you try. Hard.
Australian packagers, be very scared, getting my camera out now!
and, we europeans thought always that all americans think USA is the hole world.
Normalnie kurwa zajebiaszczo…
Oh, so funny these americans. The brith of fine cuisine might be in Europe, but certainly not in Germany. You’d better look in France or in Italy. But to defend my people: we don’t eat this crap all the time (at least I hope most here don’t).
There are still people cooking on there own, it’s just not fine cuisine ^^
Oh, so funny these americans. The brith of fine cuisine might be in Europe, but certainly not in Germany. You’d better look in France or in Italy. But to defend my people: we don’t eat this crap all the time (at least I hope most here don’t).
There are still people cooking on their own, it’s just not fine cuisine ^^
woah, i dont get it?! am i retarded?
Is that a hot dog in a granola bar…?
Very cool, I’ve always thought about this! Thanks for taking the time to even try and match the pose, type of utensil, and cut of each item — very interesting. I live in the United States, and have never seen most of these items, but they look interesting and some look pretty tasty!
Hm, well, these foodstuffs look different from the ads they’re shown, but still edible. Take some effort to decorate it and voila.
I dont eat these craps either, all are full of preservatives !!! I prefer to cook my self !
and it has benefits also , when I cook my self it cost me half the price than buying a prepared food ! thanks for the photos anyway !
It’s sad when a McDonald’s product looks more like the advertising photo than nearly anything else…
why is it that we continue to buy food products that blatantly mislead us with their imagery. Frankly I would not buy a product whose package image looks lik a dog turd nestled gently ontop of a bile of cow vomit seeded with bird droppings - all I can say is that those who buy these products get what they deserve.
Frankly if I need a picture of the product on the front of the package to let me know what I am buying then maybe I shouldn’t be buying it!
Mark
http://www.goodhappens.ca
Oh yeah, Mr. Epstein- Americans are famous for their healthy food choices and a healthy lifestyle in general, which inevitably reflects on their physical appearance. *eyeroll*
I lived both in Europe and U.S. and have to say that most people don’t buy frozen tv dinners in Europe which are obviously most disgusting things on here.. and as far as I know Americans are the ones that INVENTED a concept of tv dinner and (do I even need to emphasize this) fast food.
I had some amazing home cooked meals in Europe and they really were meals made at home from scratch- while I lived in U.S. the concept of home cooked meal included mashed potato made from a powder, pees and tomato sauce from the can etc..
European cuisine is based on fresh groceries, and even though in the last 20 years there’s been more crap on the shelves- most people still make the healthy choices.
Though I have to say: Germans are probably the fattest nation in Europe, hence all the labels on the products.
Great post!!
I was a food stylist for a week in a past life, so this brings back (not so) fond memories. I had to pick through scores and scores of soup cans for the “perfect” carrots. Legally, we had to use only ingredients found inside the cans or boxes, but no limitation on how many we had to open to gather enough material for delicious-looking photos.
And, for some reason, we were allowed to use glue for the “milk” on cereal boxes.
Is that really pizza with tuna fish on it? Come on now. I don’t care where you’re from. Tuna fish + pizza = baaaaaad idea
Comida del Lidl.
¡Típica!; falta el “arroz en 5 minutos”
Oh please, Americans eat this and more… I loved the comparative. It looks like college food. I wish they had done TV dinners, those are the worst! If they put an actual photo on the front, do you think anyone would buy it?
Ewwh … however, this does not look half as bad as the results in “Fast Food Ads vs. Reality” http://www.thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm
> Say what you want about Americans, but at least we have the sense not to buy half of that stuff.
Probably because you only have the choice between Burger King and Mc Donalds ^^
I love stupid generalizations …
Not to forget: Europe is not a country. It’s a german project, and Germany for sure never claimed to be the birth place of fine cuisine ^^ We are more the Kassler, Rollbraten and Weißwurst guys. You mean France and Italy.
Strictly speaking, this is the fault of product design, not advertising. Although I’m sure most ads hawking these products use the same imagery.
Generally, the pictures are very different from reality, but I have a few points:
*I’ve actually had the Balconi Tiramisu and it looked more like the packaging than what was presented above. In fact, I thought it was a little too fluffy for my taste.
*The person just put the curry powder on the Currywurst without actually mixing it up. Mixing it up would probably make the food look more like the picture. In fact, if the person spent a little time in presentation a lot of the food he made could be made to look like the picture.
Re: Theo Epstein
You’re judging fine cuisine by looking at the pre-packaged food from Germany? Wow.
I lolled
Does someone really think buyng dehidrated soup that the vegetables will apear in the some way shown in the pack?
Some of them have a disgusting appearence.
to casper if you ever recive this good for you