It is a common understanding that when buying food from a drive-thru, there is a good chance that the actual product will not look anything like what is advertised on the menu screen.
In fact, a 2022 lawsuit against fast food operations McDonald’s and Wendy’s alleged that the restaurants used undercooked meat to make their patties appear larger in marketing images. their hamburgers. The suit ultimately failed, according to CNN, because the judge in the case found that the food marketing was using practices that were generally accepted within the industry.
Today, a McDonald’s customer said he believes a Detroit location of the fast-food chain is falsely advertising its Filet-O-Fish sandwich with a whole slice of cheese. He calls the store to only serve it with half a slice of cheese.
A trending video by small business owner Royal Bentley (@royalbentley1) has garnered more than 600,000 views on TikTok, and he says the sandwich comes with a whole slice of cheese at other locations.
“Wait a minute … is that a whole piece of cheese on this sandwich?” he said in the video, pointing his camera at the menu’s Filet-O-Fish advertisement. “For $4.89? Wait now, wait. Wait until I get closer and get my bag. B*tch, it better be a full piece of cheese or we are going to have af*ckin’ problem.”
When he turns to the commanding officer and asks the worker if the Filet-O-Fish comes with a full or half slice of cheese, the employee immediately confirms that the sandwich only gets half a slice of cheese.
“So I went to two McDonald’s in the suburbs and they gave me a whole slice of cheese without asking for it, but every time I go to a McDonald’s in Detroit, it’s a half slice,” Bentley then explained to TikTok viewers. “The reason I really didn’t get her is because she doesn’t make the rules. But that’s interesting, false advertisement McDonald’s. Or, is it discrimination?”
The Daily Dot reached out to Bentley via Instagram direct message and McDonald’s via email.
Many viewers said they were under the impression that the sandwich was always prepared with half a slice of cheese, and never had it any other way.
“Always noticed the half cut but never paid it any mind ummm,” wrote one commenter.
“I’ve never been to any McDonald’s where it’s a whole slice,” said another.
“The filet-o-fish has had half a slice of cheese since the 80s,” says another.
Others wrote that they used to work at McDonald’s and always prepared the sandwich with half a slice of cheese instead of a whole slice. McDonald’s confirmed this practice, as reported by WGN9 in Chicago.
“When I worked at McDonald’s in my youth, it was half cut filets,” commented one user. “Never understood!”
“Lol, I used to be a manager,” wrote another commenter. “It’s true that they will only do half cuts.”
“Regular fish gets a half cut and double gets a whole cut in the middle, not all shops do this but they should follow the rules,” said a third user.
*First Published: Mar 14, 2024, 6:00 pm CDT
Brooke Sjoberg
Brooke Sjoberg is a freelance writer for the Daily Dot. He graduated with his Bachelors in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020.
