One Burger King customer wanted the chain to honor its promise that allows customers to “have it your way”—they made a request many fast-food establishments don’t really abide by.
According to TikTok user @foodieflicks1, a Burger King drive-thru customer asked them to make their burger look like something out of a TV commercial. Which doesn’t seem like a bizarre request, right? Advertisements show an alluring, plump, and perfectly assembled sandwich, and especially with the cost of fast food prices these days, one would expect a chain to provide better-looking food.
But the TikToker’s caption for their video seems to suggest that they believe the customer is disconnected from reality. “The commercials are not real bro,” it read.
The customer, nonetheless, wanted their burger to be made this way, the creator says as he narrated their experience with the guest, recording themselves assembling food for the restaurant.
“Today at Burger King, drive-thru order 12 wanted a double Texas Whopper,” the TikToker starts. “Through the headset, I heard him, he said, ‘And I want the sandwich made like how the advertisement shows it.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh boy we got one of them.’”
@foodieflicks1 The commercials are not real bro #burgerking #halloween #burger #burgerkingguy #povfood #fyp #food #pov ♬ My Love Mine All Mine – Mitski
“I tried, I always try to make it like, you know, look appetizing, I don’t just slop it together,” he continues. “But, bro, the commercials, they’re not always real.”
The Burger King employee continues to record himself assembling the customer’s burger, carefully layering the ingredients before ultimately wrapping up the Texas Whopper to give away. However, he exclaims that the way food is staged for commercials sets up impossible visually aesthetic standards for food actually served in restaurants.
“Man, YouTube it right now after you watch this video, and you’re gonna see man,” he says.”Toothpicks and all type of stuff. It doesn’t always look like that, bro. You know, I think the advertising for Burger King I think they actually use the sandwiches, but I’m just saying, sometimes what you see on TV is not always true.”
The TikToker adds that they did take pride in their work and wanted to make customers’ orders look as visually appetizing as possible, but concedes that there was only so much that they could do.
“And when you see me working a shift, you should trust me, that I’m gonna make the sandwich as beautiful as possible,” he concludes. “I know that you eat with your eyes and not with your belly, so I’m keeping that in mind man. But, I think this sandwich looked good and if he didn’t like it, I know it tasted good.”
In 2020, one bizarre and risky Whopper commercial featured a timelapse assembly of a Whopper sandwich featured against a black backdrop with perfect lighting. The timelapse footage shows the burger visually degrade over time and become a moldy mess, as a means of indicating the chain’s ingredients contain fewer preservatives.
Prior to spoiling before viewers’ eyes, however, one could see the work that went into staging the Whopper. Peta Pixel also posted a lengthy breakdown that highlights a YouTube video and includes discussions with food advertisers about the complex processes that go into recording/photographing burgers for commercial shoots.
A commenter who replied to @foodieflicks1’s video confirmed that replicating commercialized aesthetics for cheeseburgers in real life would be a tall order for any restaurant.
“I work on commercials and those burgers take forever to make and are handled with so much care it’d be impossible to replicate that ina restaurant,” they wrote.
Other users praised the way he put the burger together on camera, with one sharing, “U made it look good too bad when you go to any fast food place 99% of the time it’s just slop together.”
Someone else thought the patron’s request was a bizarre one—clearly advertisements are going to make the food look better than what customers are served in person. “Dude it tastes good every time . It’s silly for people to get hung up on presentation at BK drive-thru,” they said.
One comment suggested that some customers are expecting too much of fast food establishments, writing, “I aint going to a fast food place for presentation, im going there to get my grub on in less than 5 minutes.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Burger King via email and @foodieflicks1 via TikTok comment.
Update 11:56am CT, Nov. 30: @foodieflicks1 continues to post content related to their job at Burger King and share weird customer requests. The TikToker says a customer stopped by and tried ordering a Burger King’s Big Fish sandwich—which consists of panko breaded-fish, tartar sauce, pickles, and a brioche bun—McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish-style. The Burger King worker obliged the request, proceeding to make the sandwich for the customer on camera. The worker slabbed a bun with tartar sauce and cut a cheese slice in half, like McDonald’s does it. The worker was confused by the cheese slice, arguing that “not every bite is gonna get cheese.”
“At Burger King, you can have it your way, so if that’s what the customer wanted, and that’s how I did it,” @foodieflicks1 says. But “as i made it, I was definitely questioning my existence and reality,” the worker continues.
