Takeaway Truth: The 2015 Hall Of Shame

Takeaway Truth is a regular Lifehacker feature where we compare fast food advertising images to cold, hard reality. While a little ‘artistic licence’ is to be expected, sometimes the differences are ridiculous. Today, we take a look back at some of the worst offenders of 2015. Feast your eyes if you dare! We’re also running a poll to crown the worst Takeaway Truth product of the year. Cast your vote!

Takeaway Truth is now in its third year — in that time, we’ve seen some shocking instances of false advertising, ranging from farcically undersized burgers to literal dog’s breakfasts. On the whole, 2015 was a pretty good year with most fast food products delivering on taste and ingredients. But as always, there were still a handful of pustulant eye-sores that let the team down. In no particular order, here are this year’s takeaway items that conspicuously failed to deliver.

McDonald’s Southwest BLT Burger


“As you can see, the ingredients are pretty faithful to McDonald’s advert: we’re particularly impressed by the fresh-green lettuce which is a rarity on McDonald’s burgers. Sadly, the slipshod assembly has once again let the visuals down.”

Mad Mex Spicy Habanero Steak Quesadilla


“With apologies to our Spanish-speaking readers: Cagaste y saltaste en la caca!!! It looks like Gilbert Kane’s ruptured stomach after the xenomorph burst through it in Alien .”

McDonald’s Bacon And Cheese Sauce Loaded Fries


“The colours are wrong, the quantities are off and the bacon looks more like a grated beef jerky. Are these even the same ingredients? I’m genuinely not sure.”

Carl’s Jr. Jalapeno Thickburger


“Hmmm. While the real thing is by no means disgusting, it’s also significantly less attractive than the advert would have us believe — even if you ignore Kate Upton.”

McDonald’s Mighty McMuffin


“The muffin has been lazily assembled (we’re pretty sure this is a McDonald’s law) but the results aren’t as messy or slipshod as the average burger.”

Subway Mexican Chicken Flatbread


“I think we can all agree that the sandwich artist didn’t do a particularly bang-up job. So, no change there then.”

McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish Deluxe


“Our bun looked pretty festy and the fish fillet lacks the smooth golden hue seen on the poster. As always, our lettuce was a bit rubbish, with the frilly gourmet stuff replaced with colourless iceberg. Tch.”

Hungry Jack’s Bacon Chicken Crunch Burger


“Instead of the frilly stuff in the poster, they appear to have used a cheaper type of lettuce; a crime we’ve called fast food companies out on before. The real thing also looks a bit squashed and droopy.”

Mad Mex Baja Prawn Tacos


“Eew. The most glaring difference between the two images is the avalanche of lettuce smothering the real tacos. The advertising image has none. I specifically requested that my tacos be made to look like the poster with no extras, so I’m not sure what happened there.”

Subway Mexican Chicken Flatbread

“Herpes in bread form.”


Before we kick off a new year of takeaway torture, we thought we’d crown last year’s “winner” via a Reader’s Choice poll. Vote for the product that you think was the worst offender below!


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