Yes! It's genuinely fascinating, and it's the kind of thing I trust this community to talk about in a reasonable way which is not quite always the case (Mozilla, many politics topics). But this feels like, potentially, AI prompting or even more interestingly an intentional stylistic choice.
A video posted by McDonalds Canada reveals how they stage the burgers for photographing them. They shift each layer backwards (bun, meat, etc) so that the ingredients of the layer are more visible when photographed. The top bun ends up being a few inches backward compared to the bottom bun.
I like how it makes the burgers look more "laid back", like some cool sunglasses-wearing skater/surfer dude leaning back, or a pin-up model whose pose invites you in. Standing up straight is for the man and that's not how I want my burgers to be.
This is such a dastardly psychological trick. Being slightly aswew really hard to fight the subconscious urge to reach out and 'fix' them. I almost want to rush out to a nearest McDonald's right now and buy one of these burgers so that I can make sure that it's buns are aligned properly....
> Its best-known use is in certain orders of Classical columns that diminish in a very gentle curve, rather than in a straight line as they narrow going upward. The human eye would allegedly perceive that the middle of the column was diminishing in a concave curve halfway up the column, and entasis corrects this.
Japanese food prices are ridiculously cheap. Well that's true to pretty much whole Asia too. Even in HK which I consider more expensive than Japan a Big Mac is only 2.9€ (27 HKD). And that's McD, local food spots are even cheaper. If you have the money there is no better time to have a holiday in Asia.
A Big Mac is 10€ in France...
We are ripped off big time in the US and Europe for nothing.
When I was in cooking school there was a brief lesson in photo presentation. For something like a burger you would skew from front to back, going upward to the top bun to show the layers better but it wasn't visually noticeable that it was skewed on the photo. This seems like the same thing except the ai has chosen the side view instead of the frontal view, thus making the skew very noticeable.
A sweet disorder in the dressing
Kindles in food a wantonnessing;
A bun about the burgers thrown
Into a fine distraction;
An erring lettuce, which here and there
Enthrals the growling stomacher;
A sauce neglectful, and thereby
ketchup to flow confusedly;
A spilling salt, deserving note,
Into the rumpled sandwich tote;
A careless side dish, in whose fries
I see a wild ed'bility:
Do more bewitch me, than when meals
Are too precise in their appeals.
Seems like the right way to display them, no? If the buns (and all the layers of ingredients) were stacked perfectly, you wouldn't see very much of the ingredients inside.
The US site doesn't use this placement strategy, though. The Japanese one looks better. No surprise there.
I don’t think this is a japanese thing. The way they are askew feels familiar; I have definitely seen food that looks weirdly “off” on other menus. It’s probably just a way to stand out, like how so many models have gaps between their two front teeth. You’re gonna remember the one that’s different.
If you have OCD then do not look at those pictures!
I find these annoying. I guess they are going for organic/realistic rather than too perfect, but every other aspect of the photos - the aesthetically melting cheese, etc - follows the norms of fake fast food photography, so why bother?
You can find this style of product display in the US all the way back to the 60s, though McDonald's ads appear to favor sliding the bun more away from the camera than to the side. Also saw about equal number of burgers in a straight stack from that era
they're all tilted so the new comer don't feel so awkward with that bump on it's head --source: me
*edit: I'd like to also comment on the crazy lighting going on.. if the photographer of this can see this comment, please take a pic of the setup..this look quite intense
Aren't there more strict laws on marketing imagery being similar to their actual products in Japan? Wonder if that plays into it, or if the photography team was just having fun.
I remember in India's McDonalds there was a Maharaja Burger. In Lebanon they have falafel on the menu. This Japanese menu looks really enticing to be honest.
Often (not always) the top bun is the worst offender, but it’s most certainly not just about the buns: if you look closely, the unique characteristic of Japanese McDonalds (separating it both from McDonalds in other countries as well as from other similar chains in Japan) is that in each photo every burger layer (be it bun, meat, lettuce, etc.) is offset by a seemingly-random factor on its X axis.
I’m sure discussions like this is exactly why they did it. Considering other chains in Japan don’t do this, it clearly has nothing with regulations (unless those are really unevenly enforced).
This is doing a bigger number on me than it has any right to.
...why are they all skewed, save for the buns that are already lopsided? Those I'll note are perfectly seated. Some are more skewed than others. Like the Big Mac is only slightly skewed.
Is there a pecking order to how skewed they are? Some social hierarchy of sandwiches?
It could be to reduce discrepancy (and the disappointment) between marketing and reality.
Reminds me of this monologue from the 1993 movie Falling Down [1]:
> See, this is what I'm talking about. Look at that. See what I mean? It's plump, juicy, three inches thick. Look at this sorry, miserable, squashed thing. Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?
Another mysterious thing is that McDonald's Japan burgers taste completely different from European or Americans. The spices and sauces there are not the same, I suspect they made it that way to make it tailored to the local preferences!
315 comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man
806kB transferred. 766ms to finished. I hit the DFW AWS CloudFront pop from here.
Similar page for BK https://www.burgerking.co.jp/menu
31MB transferred. 6.5s to finished. Hits the DEN pop (but it's a "miss").
I am in Colorado. uBlock is on.
Even if you don't count the 7.5MB of fonts on the BK page, that's wild.
https://boingboing.net/2026/04/08/japans-truth-in-packaging-...
https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/en/products/4530/
But others, it's just inexplicable:
https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/en/products/1010/
Burger King isn't doing this though (close the two popups to see the menu):
https://www.burgerking.co.jp/menu
Is it some kind of trendy style? It does feel kinda... cute.
> Its best-known use is in certain orders of Classical columns that diminish in a very gentle curve, rather than in a straight line as they narrow going upward. The human eye would allegedly perceive that the middle of the column was diminishing in a concave curve halfway up the column, and entasis corrects this.
A Big Mac is 10€ in France...
We are ripped off big time in the US and Europe for nothing.
https://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/en/products/1210/
Big Macs haven't been that cheap since 2008 in the US.
I wonder if it's related to their strict rules on realistic pictures for advertising products
The US site doesn't use this placement strategy, though. The Japanese one looks better. No surprise there.
The Bai Egg Cheeseburger achieved more than slightly askew, it is defying gravity.
McDonald’s Germany has a Philly stack.
https://www.mcdonalds.com/de/de-de/produkte/alle-produkte/bu...
I find these annoying. I guess they are going for organic/realistic rather than too perfect, but every other aspect of the photos - the aesthetically melting cheese, etc - follows the norms of fake fast food photography, so why bother?
*edit: I'd like to also comment on the crazy lighting going on.. if the photographer of this can see this comment, please take a pic of the setup..this look quite intense
I’m sure discussions like this is exactly why they did it. Considering other chains in Japan don’t do this, it clearly has nothing with regulations (unless those are really unevenly enforced).
...why are they all skewed, save for the buns that are already lopsided? Those I'll note are perfectly seated. Some are more skewed than others. Like the Big Mac is only slightly skewed.
Is there a pecking order to how skewed they are? Some social hierarchy of sandwiches?
Reminds me of this monologue from the 1993 movie Falling Down [1]:
> See, this is what I'm talking about. Look at that. See what I mean? It's plump, juicy, three inches thick. Look at this sorry, miserable, squashed thing. Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciG8AKdp-GM