It is a common understanding that when buying food from a drive-thru, there is a good chance the actual product is not going to look anything like what is advertised on the menu screen.
In fact, a 2022 suit against fast food operations McDonald’s and Wendy’s alleged that the restaurants were using undercooked meat to make their patties look bigger in photos used to market their hamburgers. The suit ultimately failed, according to CNN, as the judge in the case found that food marketing used practices commonly accepted within the industry.
Now, a McDonald’s customer says he believes a Detroit location of the fast-food chain is falsely advertising its Filet-O-Fish sandwich with a full slice of cheese. He’s calling out the shop for only serving it with half of a slice of cheese.
A trending video by small business owner Royal Bentley (@royalbentley1) has drawn over 600,000 views on TikTok, and he says that the sandwich comes with full slices of cheese at other locations.
“Wait a minute … is that a full piece of cheese on this sandwich?” he says in the video, pointing his camera at the menu’s Filet-O-Fish advertisement. “For $4.89? Wait now, hold on. Wait until I come around and get my bag. B*tch, it better be a full piece of cheese or we are going to have a f*ckin’ problem.”
When he pulls up to the ordering speaker and asks the worker whether the Filet-O-Fish comes with a full or half slice of cheese, the employee immediately confirms that the sandwich only gets half of a slice of cheese.
“So I went to two McDonald’s in the suburbs and they gave me full slices of cheese without asking for it, but every time I go to a McDonald’s in Detroit, half slice,” Bentley then elaborates to TikTok viewers. “The reason I really didn’t get her is because she don’t make the rules. But that’s interesting, false advertisement McDonald’s. Or, is it discrimination?”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Bentley via Instagram direct message and to McDonald’s via email.
Several viewers remarked that they were under the impression the sandwich had always been prepared with a half slice of cheese, and had never had it any other way.
“I’ve always noticed half slice but never paid it any mind ummm,” one commenter wrote.
“I’ve never been to any McDonald’s where it’s a whole slice,” another claimed.
“The filet-o-fish has had a half slice of cheese since the 80s,” someone else said.
Others wrote that they had previously worked at McDonald’s and that the sandwich was always prepared with half of a slice of cheese rather than a full slice. McDonald’s has confirmed this practice, as reported by WGN9 in Chicago.
“When I worked at McDonald’s in my teens it was a half slice on filets,” one user commented. “Never understood!”
“Lol I used to be a manager,” another commenter wrote. “It’s true they’re only supposed to do half slice.”
“Regular fish gets half slice and double gets a full slice in the middle, not every store does it but they supposed to follow the rules,” a third user said.