A ‘trick': Advertising expert lifts lid on McDonald's nugget claim
'With the McDonald's thing, it was that their chicken nuggets are made WITH 100% chicken. You know there's a lot of other stuff in there, and some of it might not BE 100% chicken, but it's made WITH 100% chicken.'
'You'll see it everywhere now. Subtle marketing trick,' he adds. 'Still tastes good'.
The video quickly amassed hundreds of comments, with many expressing their shock over the revelation.
'Thank you for your public service,' one person wrote.
'I'm so tired of sleazy food company marketing,' someone else admitted.
'Once you work in marketing, your eyes are opened too much,' another replied.
While Luke is American, the marketing approach isn't unique to the US, and a check of the McDonald's website reveals a similar story.
Here, Chicken McNuggets are advertised as 'made with tender juicy 100% chicken breast'.
But a look at the ingredient list shows it's not that simple.
Chicken is indeed the first ingredient, but it's followed by water, flour (wheat, corn), canola oil, thickeners, starches, salt, mineral salts, spices, sunflower oil and dextrose, among others.
In other words, while the nuggets are made with 100% chicken breast, they are not made of only chicken breast.
In response to this, McDonald's shared a statement to news.com.au saying that they're 'not in the business of misleading our customers'.
'When we say our famous Chicken McNuggets are made with 100% RSPCA-approved breast chicken, we mean it,' the statement read.
'The additional ingredients listed in our nutrition and allergen fact sheet go into the delicious marinade and coating.
'Being transparent about this is important, so that our customers can make informed decisions about their menu choices.'
Businesses may be breaking the law if they engage in misleading or deceptive conduct.
It makes no difference whether a business intends to mislead or not, but rather how the average consumer perceives the claim.
The video highlights how carefully crafted language can be used in advertising to shape our understanding of what's really in our food.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
Empire In The Antipodes: Why The FBI's Wellington Office Is A Threat ToAotearoa
On 31 July 2025, the FBI officially opened its first standalone office in Aotearoa New Zealand, based in Wellington's U.S. Embassy. For most of the mainstream media, this development was reported with a mixture of bureaucratic neutrality and mild curiosity. For politicians, it was framed as a logical step in enhancing cooperation on 'transnational crime.' But for those of us grounded in anti-authoritarian, anti-imperialist traditions of resistance, the meaning is far clearer – this is a dangerous expansion of American imperial policing into the Pacific, an alarming deepening of New Zealand's entanglement with the global surveillance state, and a stark reminder that in the eyes of empire, no land is truly sovereign. This move is not about safety or justice but about extending the reach of capital and control through surveillance and soft occupation. The narratives of 'cybercrime' and 'child exploitation' are being used to justify foreign policing on Indigenous land, while drawing historical and contemporary connections to colonialism, Five Eyes hegemony, and capitalist control. Policing Beyond Borders The Federal Bureau of Investigation is, by legal definition, a domestic agency. It exists to enforce U.S. federal law on U.S. soil. Yet the FBI now operates over 60 Legal Attaché offices around the world, and the new Wellington branch has been upgraded to become one of them, tasked with responsibility not only for Aotearoa but also for Niue, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tonga, and even Antarctica. This is a global policing project masquerading as international cooperation. The FBI has been present in New Zealand since 2017, managed through its Canberra office. What has changed is that now, the FBI is no longer a guest, it is a tenant with its own office, its own staff, and its own extraterritorial power. FBI Director Kash Patel's visit to New Zealand was not just administrative, it was ideological. At a press conference, he made clear that the new office was about 'countering the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the Indo-Pacific.' While New Zealand ministers such as Winston Peters and Judith Collins quickly distanced themselves from this overt geopolitical framing, the cat was already out of the bag. The FBI is not just here to stop online paedophiles or drug traffickers. It is here to enforce the strategic goals of the American empire. The backlash was immediate. Beijing condemned the comments as provocative and destabilising. Thousands of Kiwis expressed their anger online. Some posted furious responses on social media. This is not a fringe reaction. It is the instinct of people who know, whether consciously or intuitively, that what is being done in their name is not for their protection but for their submission. Five Eyes, Many Lies To understand the danger of this moment, one must understand the Five Eyes. Formed as a post-war intelligence alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the Five Eyes has become a sprawling surveillance machine. It is a central pillar of what Edward Snowden exposed as the modern panopticon, a world where the internet is weaponised to track, manipulate, and suppress populations in the name of 'national security.' In this context, the FBI's expansion is not a bureaucratic upgrade, it is an insertion of another gear in the machine. It deepens the convergence of policing, intelligence, and military strategy across the Anglosphere. It makes Aotearoa even more complicit in the surveillance of its own people and of Pacific nations long exploited by Western colonial powers. It also deepens our vulnerability. New Zealand has tried to maintain a strategic balance in its foreign relations – reliant on China as its biggest trading partner, aligned with the U.S. and UK through Five Eyes. This tightrope walk has always been fraught, but the FBI's presence risks turning it into a fall. Patel's anti-China statements not only escalated diplomatic tension, they forced New Zealand to pick a side in the increasingly dangerous theatre of U.S.- China competition. And that choice is being made without democratic consent. The FBI was not invited by the people of Aotearoa. It was welcomed in by a political class eager to please its imperial friends while hiding behind the language of public safety. The Carceral Smokescreen The official justification for the FBI's expansion rests on the pillars of 'transnational crime' – cyber intrusions, child exploitation, organised crime, and drug trafficking. These are serious issues. But serious problems do not justify authoritarian solutions. What we are witnessing is the use of moral panic to expand surveillance infrastructure and carceral logic. The FBI has a long and brutal history, not just of policing crime, but of repressing dissent. From the COINTELPRO operations that targeted civil rights leaders, Black radicals, and Indigenous activists, to the post-9/11 entrenchment of racial profiling and entrapment, the FBI has always served the preservation of white supremacist, capitalist, and imperial power. Its arrival in Aotearoa is not neutral. It is not humanitarian. It is not apolitical. It is the expansion of a violent institution that answers to a violent empire. Moreover, the notion that transnational crime is best tackled through foreign intelligence agencies ignores the real roots of harm. Why is organised crime flourishing? Because economic systems create desperation, exclusion, and inequality. Why are children exploited? Because patriarchal capitalism commodifies bodies and thrives on secrecy and silence. Why is cybercrime rampant? Because capitalism digitised the economy without care for consent, justice, or digital sovereignty. To address these harms, we do not need more spies. We need more justice, real, transformative, community-rooted justice. The FBI is not the answer. It is part of the problem. Pacific Subjugation, Again That the FBI's jurisdiction includes Niue, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands is not a coincidence, it is a strategy. The Pacific is being recolonised under the guise of security. With China increasing its presence in the region through economic partnerships and infrastructure projects, the U.S. is rushing to reassert dominance, not through aid or diplomacy, but through militarisation and surveillance. The FBI in Wellington will act as a regional hub, not just for information gathering, but for soft coercion. These nations, many still grappling with the legacies of colonisation and neo-colonial governance, are now being brought into the orbit of American law enforcement without meaningful consent or reciprocal benefit. This is not security. This is soft occupation. And it must be opposed. The People Say No One of the few hopeful elements in this bleak development has been the public response. Aotearoa is not asleep. Many see this for what it is, imperial overreach dressed in bureaucratic clothing. The protests, online and offline, speak to a population that still values sovereignty, autonomy, and transparency. As anarcho-communists, we believe in people power. We believe that real security comes not from surveillance but from solidarity. We believe that no foreign agency should operate on these lands without the consent of the people who live here, and that even then, true justice is built from the ground up, not imposed from above. The anger is growing, and it is righteous. But we must go beyond protest. We must organise. A Call to Resistance This moment is a call to action. The FBI's presence is only the most visible layer of a deeper system that treats Aotearoa and the Pacific as pawns in a geopolitical chess game. To resist this system, we must connect the dots. We must link the FBI to the NZ Police, to the SIS, to the Five Eyes, to the prison-industrial complex, to colonial land theft, to capitalism's extraction and surveillance economies. We must say not just 'No FBI', but also 'No prisons. No cops. No empires. No bosses.' We must demand an end to foreign policing and a beginning to something else, something rooted in mana motuhake, tino rangatiratanga, and collective liberation. The opening of an FBI office in Wellington is not an isolated event. It is a sign of a system expanding, a machine tightening its grip. But every expansion carries the seeds of its own opposition. The future we want will not be built by diplomats or directors. It will be built by us, together, from below, in defiance of the states and empires that seek to divide and dominate us. Let this be our line in the sand. We were not born to be watched. We were born to be free. AOTEAROA WORKERS SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT aotearoa_anarchism@
1News
3 days ago
- 1News
Anger after trophy hunter kills lion that was part of research project
The killing of a collared lion involved in a research project in Zimbabwe by a trophy hunter has been condemned by wildlife groups, echoing the infamous case of a lion called Cecil, whose death at the hands of an American tourist in the same country a decade ago was met with international outrage. The latest lion, known as Blondie, was part of an Oxford University study and wore a research collar sponsored by Africa Geographic, a safari company. Africa Geographic said Blondie was killed by a hunter in June close to the country's flagship Hwange National Park after being lured out of a protected area and into a nearby hunting zone with the use of bait. After Blondie's killing became a new rallying cry for those opposed to hunting, a spokesperson for Zimbabwe's National Parks told The Associated Press that the hunt was legal and the hunter had the necessary permits. Zimbabwe allows up to 100 lions to be hunted a year. Trophy hunters, who are usually foreign tourists, pay tens of thousands of dollars to kill a lion and take the head or skin as a trophy. Africa Geographic CEO Simon Espley said Blondie's killing made 'a mockery of the ethics' trophy hunters claim to prescribe to because he wore a clearly visible research collar and was a breeding male in his prime. Hunters say they only target ageing, non-breeding lions. "That Blondie's prominent collar did not prevent him from being offered to a hunting client confirms the stark reality that no lion is safe from trophy hunting guns,' Espley said. ADVERTISEMENT Hunting lions is fiercely divisive, even among conservationists. Some say if it is well managed it raises money that can be put back into conservation. Others want killing wildlife for sport to be banned outright. Some countries in Africa like Kenya have commercial hunting bans, others like Zimbabwe and South Africa allow it. Botswana lifted a ban on hunting six years ago. Tinashe Farawo, the spokesperson for the Zimbabwe parks agency, said money from hunting is crucial to support the southern African nation's underfunded conservation efforts. He defended the hunt and said they often happen at night, meaning the collar on Blondie may not have been visible. Demonstrators gather outside the dental practice of Walter Palmer (Source: Associated Press) He said he had no information on Blondie being lured out of the park with bait — which is usually a dead animal — but there 'is nothing unethical or illegal about that for anyone who knows how lions are hunted. This is how people hunt'. 'Our rangers were present. All paperwork was in order. Collars are for research purposes, but they don't make the animal immune to hunting," Farawo said. He declined to name the hunter. Cecil's killing in 2015 unleashed furious anger against Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist and trophy hunter who lured the lion out of the same national park in Zimbabwe and shot him with a bow before tracking him for hours and finally killing him. Cecil, whose head and skin were cut off and taken for trophies, was also involved in a research project by Oxford University. ADVERTISEMENT The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including fleeing driver hits house, severe turbulence hits US flight, and massive new bug found in Australia. (Source: 1News) Zimbabwe authorities initially said they would seek to extradite Palmer over the hunt, although that didn't happen, while a hunting guide who helped him was arrested, only for charges to be dropped. Zimbabwe's national parks agency says the country makes about US$20 million (NZ$33 million) a year from trophy hunting, with a single hunter spending an average of US$100,000 (NZ$169,795) per hunt — which includes accommodation and hiring vehicles and local trackers. Zimbabwe is home to approximately 1500 wild lions, with around one-third of them living in the vast Hwange National Park. Across Africa, the wild lion population is estimated at around 20,000. However, their numbers are decreasing due to habitat loss and human conflict. Lions, one of Africa's most iconic species, are currently listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
NZ Herald
3 days ago
- NZ Herald
China hits back at FBI director's ‘groundless assertions' in Wellington
FBI director Kash Patel at the opening ceremony for a dedicated law enforcement attaché office in Wellington. Photo / Supplied, Ola Thorsen 'Transnational crime is a common challenge encountered by all countries requiring co-operation to tackle,' a spokesperson said. 'On the opening of a new FBI office in Wellington with a permanent Legat [legal attaché] position, we have taken note of the assertions by the American side, as well as the remarks by relevant New Zealand ministers in response to the media. 'We believe that relevant co-operation should not target any third party. And we strongly oppose any attempt to make groundless assertions or vilification against China out of the Cold War mentality. Such acts are against people's will and are doomed to fail.' The Government has pushed back on suggestions that the FBI's new office in Wellington aimed to counter China. Foreign Minister Winston Peters said China was not raised in his meeting with Patel, and the minister responsible for the spy agencies GCSB and NZSIS, Judith Collins, said it was up to Patel what he wanted to say. The Chinese Embassy building in Wellington. Photo / Reece Baker, RNZ 'When we were talking, we never had raised that issue,' Peters said. 'We talked about the Pacific, what we could do to improve the law and order situation and the great concern that Pacific countries had and that they needed help, and that we need to be part of the solution.' Collins said the US was 'very focused on fentanyl' and knew New Zealand was focused on disrupting the methamphetamine trade. 'We know that we do have international criminals ... let's just understand that our security agency is also involved in this. We're not going to single out any particular country.' University of Otago lecturer Dr Peter Grace said drug and human trafficking was 'spiralling out of control' in the region, and New Zealand had limited resources to fight it. 'New Zealand is a small state, and we just don't have the kind of resources that are going to help solve these problems… So the fact that you've got somebody with much deeper pockets coming down and cooperating can be a particularly good thing.' Opposition parties expressed surprise at the announcement, Labour saying it had come without explanation and Greens saying the office should not exist and New Zealand should exit the Five Eyes arrangement altogether. - RNZ
