National Avocado Month and Taking a Second Look
There was a time when avocados felt almost exotic.
Today they’re everywhere. On toast, in salads, on burgers, in sushi rolls, and transformed into enough guacamole to fill an impressive number of restaurant bowls.
For National Avocado Month, I thought it was worth taking a closer look at the fruit itself.
Most of us encounter avocados as ingredients. They arrive sliced, mashed, diced, or blended into something else. Rarely do we stop to appreciate how distinctive they actually are. The dark, textured skin looks almost prehistoric, while the interior reveals smooth green flesh surrounding one of the largest seeds found in common produce.
Photographing food often gives me an excuse to slow down and look at familiar subjects more carefully. When an avocado is removed from the grocery display, the cutting board, and the recipe, details begin to stand out. The contrast between the rough exterior and the soft interior. The subtle variations of green. The simple geometry created by the seed and the cavity it leaves behind.
Avocados have become so common that they almost disappear into the background of everyday meals. Yet they’re still one of the more unusual fruits in any produce department.
Sometimes a familiar subject is worth a second look.
More of my Commercial Food Photography, along with aviation, collections, and other ongoing projects, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com You may discover something you’ve seen countless times before, but never really stopped to look.
National Donut Week | FOOD FROM BAG TO BACKGROUND
This is National Donut Week.
For my ongoing “FOOD FROM BAG TO BACKGROUND” project, the main focus has always been fast food. The foods people grab quickly, eat in the car, bring home late at night, or pick up almost automatically without thinking much about it.
And yes, donuts absolutely qualify.
Donut chains consistently rank among the largest fast food companies in America. Drive-thrus, quick service counters, recognizable packaging, impulse purchases, sugar, caffeine, convenience, the entire fast food formula is there.
So for National Donut Week, I photographed an assorted pile of donuts exactly the same way I approach burgers, tacos, fries, or pizza for this series.
Straight from the box.
No food stylist.
No careful arrangement.
No fake perfection.
Just donuts against a black background.
Then things escalated slightly.
Because now the donuts are slowly rotating in darkness while one pink sprinkled donut has apparently decided to break formation and drift through the frame like some kind of sugar-coated UFO.
Somewhere between fast food photography and science fiction, FOOD FROM BAG TO BACKGROUND continues here at…
https://www.secondfocus.com
National Hamburger Month, The Whopper Strikes Back in the BIG ARCH Authenticity War
Yesterday I wrote about the introduction of the BIG ARCH from McDonald’s and the strange corporate authenticity debate that unexpectedly formed around it. That post ended up becoming less about hamburgers themselves and more about how massive fast food companies now perform for the public in real time, with every detail immediately analyzed, mocked, defended, or turned into marketing.
If you missed it, the first part is here:
But the story really did not stop with McDonald’s.
Burger King quickly responded using the Whopper as its counterargument. Not a new burger. Not a limited-time release. Just the Whopper itself, the company essentially arguing that authenticity did not need to be engineered because they already had it.
That became the fascinating part of this entire fast food moment.
McDonald’s presented the BIG ARCH almost like a flagship corporate object, oversized, stacked, carefully engineered, heavily promoted. Burger King responded with flame-grilled familiarity and a deliberately less controlled image. The companies were no longer simply competing on taste or price. They were competing on who appeared more believable.
And honestly, that may be the most modern form of advertising possible.
The Whopper itself has a long history. Introduced in 1957, it actually predates the Big Mac and became Burger King’s defining product for decades. Larger, messier, harder to eat cleanly, more physically uneven than the carefully stacked advertising versions most companies prefer to show.
Which is why this photograph interested me.
Unlike the BIG ARCH image I photographed earlier, this one already has a good sized bite taken out of it. The wrapper is still there. The burger is compressed from the bite. Sauce and onions are shifting out of place. It looks handled because it was handled.
That changes the photograph completely.
The image stops being about idealized presentation and becomes more about evidence, consumption, and the strange reality of how people actually interact with fast food. The burger becomes less like advertising and more like an object moving through someone’s life for a few minutes before disappearing.
That tension has become part of what I am exploring with the Food From Bag To Background project.
Fast food companies spend billions trying to construct images around products like this. Commercials, slogans, campaigns, celebrity promotions, social media teams, engineered branding language. But once the wrapper opens and someone takes a bite, the entire performance starts collapsing back into something very physical and very ordinary.
And somehow that may be the most authentic part of the entire thing.
More from the Food From Bag To Background project at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Walnut Day
Today is National Walnut Day.
And unlike a lot of modern food holidays that seem to appear because somebody on social media decided tacos or donuts needed another excuse for hashtags, this one actually became official through the United States government.
National Walnut Day was originally established in 1949 by the Walnut Marketing Board. Then in 1958, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution officially recognizing May 17 as National Walnut Day, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
So walnuts have had an officially recognized day on the calendar for nearly 70 years.
And walnuts carry more weight than people probably realize. California now produces about 99% of all walnuts grown in the United States and roughly a third of the world’s walnut supply. They’ve become tied to everything from baking and salads to snack foods, health food culture, and holiday desserts.
This photograph keeps the idea simple. Just walnut halves piled onto a black plate against a black background. No styling tricks, no added elements, no attempt to turn them into something else. The texture, shapes, and warm tones do the work on their own.
Sometimes that’s enough.
More at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Apple Pie Day
Today is National Apple Pie Day.
There is the version everyone talks about. Homemade crust, family recipe, something cooling on a windowsill that probably hasn’t existed in real life for decades.
Then there is this.
McDonald’s Apple Pie.
First introduced in 1968, originally deep fried, engineered for consistency, speed, and scale. At its peak, McDonald’s was selling millions of these every day across thousands of locations worldwide. Not a regional dessert. Not seasonal. Always there, always the same.
In the early 1990s, they made the switch from fried to baked. A decision driven by changing tastes and public pressure around health. It didn’t end the product. It just changed it. The pie stayed, because the demand never left.
This is not the pie people romanticize. It’s the one people actually buy.
Hot, handheld, straight from a sleeve, eaten in a car, in a parking lot, or somewhere between one stop and the next. No plate, no fork, no ceremony.
If there’s a case for what defines American food culture, this belongs in the conversation.
Not because it’s refined, but because it works. It always worked.
More on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Hoagie Day was yesterday
Which is about right. These things never seem to line up with when you actually have the food in front of you. They pass, mostly unnoticed, and then a day later you’re standing there with two Firehouse Subs and a camera thinking… now it’s relevant.
Firehouse started in Jacksonville, built by two former firefighters who turned the concept into something very specific. Steamed meats, soft rolls, a heavier sandwich that doesn’t try to hide what it is. It’s direct, a little excessive, and that’s the point.
So instead of chasing the calendar, I went after the structure.
Cut into sections, stacked, compressed, pushed together until it stops reading as a single sandwich and starts becoming something else. Bread, meat, cheese, all exposed at once. No clean halves, no careful spacing. Just density, texture, and everything competing for attention.
That’s where my photography tends to land. Not documenting the sandwich, but pulling it apart visually and rebuilding it into something more deliberate. Something you look at, not just something you eat.
And in that form, it becomes less about lunch and more about the way it holds the frame. Something to study for a moment.
More of my food photography and much more on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Pigs In A Blanket Day
Today is National Pigs In A Blanket Day.
A name that sounds like it should require an explanation, but somehow never does.
So I made them. Or more accurately, I bought them, baked them, cut them into pieces, and piled them up.
In the United States, pigs in a blanket are typically made with cocktail sausages and crescent roll dough, a format that took hold in the mid-20th century as refrigerated dough products became widely available. They became a standard party food because they are inexpensive, easy to prepare in large quantities, and require no utensils.
Just pastry, sausage, and the quiet efficiency of a food that was never meant to last very long once it’s out. Try this next to that vegetable platter at your next party and see what happens.
More of my food photography, from simple compositions like this to everything else I’ve been working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
National English Muffin Day
Today is National English Muffin Day.
Which means at some point, someone decided this particular bread product needed its own moment of recognition. Not toast. Not bread in general. Specifically, the English muffin.
So I split them open, toasted them, stacked them, and photographed them against a black background like they were about to be evaluated for something more serious than breakfast.
English muffins date back to the late 1800s, when Samuel Bath Thomas, an English immigrant in New York, began selling them as a softer alternative to traditional British crumpets. They were cooked on a griddle instead of baked, giving them their signature flat shape and the interior texture that marketers would later describe as “nooks and crannies.”
Those “nooks and crannies” became the entire story. A structural feature turned into branding, repeated often enough that it now feels like a technical specification rather than a slogan.
Today, English muffins are not a niche product. About 171 million Americans consume them each year, and the category generates roughly $700 million in annual sales, with Thomas’ controlling close to 70% of the market.
Here, they are split, toasted, and arranged as they are. No styling, no additions, no attempt to improve them.
Just bread, texture, and the quiet confidence of something that’s been around long enough to not need explanation.
More of my food photography, from simple compositions like this to everything else I’ve been working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Jelly Bean Day
Today is National Jelly Bean Day.
So I simply poured an unreasonable number of jelly beans into a pile and photographed them against a black background.
Jelly beans have been around longer than they probably should have been. Their origins trace back to the 19th century, when Turkish Delight inspired the soft interior, and candy makers added a hard sugar shell. By the early 1900s, they were being marketed as an affordable treat, often sold by the pound.
They became closely associated with Easter in the 1930s, mostly because their egg-like shape fit the theme and they were cheap enough to produce in bulk. That hasn’t really changed.
Americans now consume billions of jelly beans each year, with estimates often landing somewhere around 16 billion during the Easter season alone. Flavors range from predictable fruit to combinations that seem designed more as a challenge than a snack.
What you’re looking at here is a simple pile, straight from the bag. No sorting, no styling, no intervention. Just color, sugar, and excess.
More of my food photography, from controlled compositions like this to everything else I’ve been working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Animal Cracker Day
Today is National Animal Cracker Day.
A day that takes us back to being kids, when a simple box of crackers somehow felt like something more than just a snack.
We didn’t just eat them. We looked at them first. Tried to figure out what each one was supposed to be. Some were obvious, others less so, but that never seemed to matter.
Animal crackers have been around since the late 1800s, originally imported from England before becoming a staple in American snack culture. The familiar circus-style versions arrived in the early 1900s, packaged in small boxes with a string so they could be hung like ornaments. Even then, it wasn’t just about the food.
This is my photograph of animal crackers, piled together, no order, no hierarchy. Just a mass of indistinct shapes. Once you take away the packaging and the nostalgia, they become something else entirely.
More of my food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and everything in between can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
And The Best Fast Food Burger Is…
Today I came across a report from a fast food news source, “GreasyNews”, ranking the best fast food burgers in America. And yes I follow “GreasyNews”.
The result was close. Very close.
Five Guys took the top spot by just 0.5%, with Burger King right behind it. Then In-N-Out, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s rounding out the top five. The data came from YouGov, based on surveys of American adults collected between March 2025 and February 2026, tracking the habits of people who eat out regularly.
This is my photograph of a burger from Five Guys. No styling, no adjustments, just as it came out of the bag and onto my black background. The sesame bun slightly collapsing, the cheese melting into the patties, everything just a bit out of control. Exactly how it shows up in real life.
That’s what this project has always been about. Taking fast food and isolating it. Letting it stand on its own.
Five Guys may have edged out the rest in the rankings. But visually, they all hold up once you remove everything else around them.
My opinion… “This IS a tasty burger!”.
More of my fast food photography can be found in my “Food From Bag To Background” series on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National McDonald’s Day
For National McDonald’s Day, I decided to mark the occasion properly.
This is my idea of a celebration cake.
Five BIG ARCH burgers, stacked, unsteady, and exactly what they are, straight from the bag. No styling, no corrections. Just excess, structure, and the kind of presentation that doesn’t need explanation.
The BIG ARCH itself is perhaps a callback. McDonald’s tried something similar in the mid-1990s with the Arch Deluxe, positioned as a more “grown-up” burger. It came with one of the largest promotional budgets ever put behind a fast food product at the time. The product, however, didn’t last.
The BIG ARCH is a large, limited-time release, built as a more substantial offering. Two quarter-pound beef patties, three slices of white cheddar, crispy and slivered onions, pickles, lettuce, and a tangy BIG ARCH sauce, all on a sesame and poppy seed bun. It leans into size, layers, and presence rather than subtlety.
Every year on this day, McDonald’s fans mark a special day known as McDonald’s Day. It commemorates the opening of Ray Kroc’s first McDonald’s franchised restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, back in 1955.
More to see from my Food From Bag To Background series on my website at
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day
National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day showed up again, and this one already had a place in my archive.
Last year I photographed these grilled cheese sandwiches from Sonic, stacked and set against a black background, exactly as they came. No styling, no reconstruction, no attempt to turn them into something else. Just what they are.
Sonic has been part of the American fast food landscape since 1953, when it began as a small root beer stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Built around the drive-in model, it became known for a menu that leaned into simplicity and consistency. The grilled cheese sandwich fits directly into that tradition. White bread, American cheese, buttered and toasted on a flat top. It is not trying to compete with anything elevated or reimagined. It is built to be recognizable, affordable, and the same every time.
That idea sits at the center of my “From Bag to Background” series. Fast food is not just something we eat quickly and forget. It is part of everyday life, routine, memory, and culture. These sandwiches, simple as they are, carry that weight. They are familiar, consistent, and widely recognized without needing explanation.
Photographing them this way isolates that idea. Removed from the packaging and the setting, they become something to look at more closely. Texture, repetition, structure, even excess. It shifts the way the subject is seen without changing what it is.
There is no attempt to elevate it into something it is not. The point is that it already matters.
More of my food photography, including the “From Bag to Background” series, along with everything else I am working on, can be found at https://www.secondfocus.com
Celebrating the Fresh Tomato!
Today is National Fresh Tomato Day.
I said to my AI muse Emily that we needed something unique to dance around the subject. Something clean. Something elevated. Something that says we are taking tomatoes very seriously.
Emily said, “I have just the friend for that.”
A vertical stack. Vibrant. Healthy. Perfect for the arrival of Spring.
She takes a look at it. Considers it.
And of course, she dances around it.
This is where it shifts, uncensored, as Emily and her friend Ronnie meant it to be.
I try to keep it all intriguing. My food photography, pornochic photo adventures, and more can be found on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Twinkie Day
Some things don’t change.
Today is National Twinkie Day, and instead of creating something new, I went back to this photograph. You may have seen it before. It’s still the most licensed food image I’ve made.
That says something.
Not about effort, or originality, or even the subject. Just about what holds attention. A pile of Twinkies, cut open, stacked, and stripped of everything except what they are.
A sponge cake with a cream filling that hasn’t changed much over the years. No reinvention, no seasonal variation, no attempt to become something else.
And yet it keeps working.
So instead of chasing something new for the sake of it, I came back to this. Because sometimes the most effective image is already sitting there, doing exactly what it was meant to do.
My commercial food photography gallery can be viewed at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
Efficiency in the Frozen Food Aisle, According to Desiree
Last Friday was National Frozen Food Day.
Unfortunately I was running a little late getting anything together for it. That is when I had what seemed like a very efficient idea. Instead of doing the shopping myself, I decided to send Desiree back to the supermarket where she had shopped for me previously. Her last grocery store video turned out to be very successful, so repeating the experiment seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan.
I told her I would meet her there.
When I arrived, however, I discovered that Desiree had interpreted “repeat the concept” somewhat literally.
She was wearing, or perhaps more accurately not wearing, exactly what she wore the last time. The same red heels, the same confident attitude, and the same approach to grocery shopping that had apparently worked so well before.
Her explanation was simple. If the last video was successful, why change anything?
Fair point.
So Desiree continued down the frozen food aisle, apparently quite comfortable with the situation, while I tried to remember what I had actually sent her there to buy.
The timing turned out to work rather well. National Frozen Food Day may have been Friday, but today happens to be National Hash Brown Day, and frozen hash browns are exactly the kind of invention that made the modern frozen food aisle possible.
In the end, Desiree’s shopping trip may not have saved any time at all, but it did provide a reminder that the frozen food aisle can sometimes be a surprisingly interesting place.
And apparently Desiree intends to keep the same shopping strategy.
If you would like to see more of my food photography, and perhaps a few more of these pornochic adventures, you can visit my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
National Hash Brown Day
Today is National Hash Brown Day, which seems like a perfectly reasonable excuse to cook a pile of them.
Hash browns have been part of the American breakfast for more than a century. The name comes from the French word “hacher”, meaning to chop. In the late nineteenth century restaurants began serving what were called “hashed brown potatoes,” chopped or shredded potatoes fried until crisp. They appeared on hotel breakfast menus and quickly spread to diners and restaurants across the country.
The modern hash brown patty, however, is a much newer development.
Many people associate the familiar patty with McDonald’s, where the crisp rectangular hash brown became one of the most recognizable breakfast sides in America.
But the frozen food industry actually got there first.
In the 1960s frozen potato company Ore-Ida introduced frozen hash brown patties as part of the expanding frozen convenience food market. Shredded potatoes were formed into patties that could go directly from the freezer to the oven or pan. When McDonald’s launched its national breakfast program in the early 1970s, the frozen patty format worked perfectly for restaurant kitchens and quickly became associated with the chain.
For this photograph I cooked a batch of frozen hash brown patties and piled them onto their packaging, a small nod to their frozen food origins. A few broken pieces reveal the soft shredded potato interior beneath the crisp exterior.
Not bad for something that started as chopped potatoes in a hotel kitchen and ended up in the frozen food aisle.
You can see more of my Commercial Food Photography on my website at…
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
The Most Popular Snack in America Isn’t Potato Chips
I managed to miss National Snack Day this year. It was March 4th. Somehow that critical moment in American culture slipped right past me, which is unfortunate because snack food is practically a national pastime.
To make up for the oversight, I decided to photograph a plate of Rice Krispies Treats. Not just the classic version, but also a few variations with chocolate drizzle and candy pieces mixed in.
And here is the interesting part. Depending on how you measure it, Rice Krispies Treats are often cited as one of the most popular snacks in the United States. Not potato chips. Not pretzels. Not candy bars. A square of crispy rice cereal held together with melted marshmallow.
The original version dates back to 1939, when Mildred Day, a home economist working in Kellogg’s test kitchen, created the recipe using Rice Krispies cereal and marshmallows. The idea was simple. Melt marshmallows, mix in the cereal, press it into a pan, and cut it into squares. The recipe was initially promoted as a fundraiser dessert for Camp Fire Girls groups across the country.
From there the treat spread everywhere. School bake sales, birthday parties, lunchboxes, office break rooms. Eventually Kellogg’s began producing packaged Rice Krispies Treats, turning what had once been a homemade snack into a grocery store staple.
So even though I missed National Snack Day by a day or two, this seemed like a reasonable way to catch up.
You can see more of my Commercial Food Photography on my website at…
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
National Oreo Cookie Day
Two chocolate wafers. A layer of sweet cream filling. That was the entire idea.
Today is National Oreo Cookie Day, recognizing the cookie that has been quietly dominating the snack aisle since 1912.
That year the National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco, introduced the Oreo, a simple chocolate sandwich cookie finished with the familiar decorative pattern stamped into the biscuit.
More than a century later the formula still works. The company has introduced countless variations, double stuffed, seasonal flavors, and limited editions, yet the original remains the version most people recognize instantly.
For this photograph I kept things simple. A pile of Oreos straight from the package, stacked on a black background. No props and no styling tricks, just the cookies themselves arranged into a small mound of one of the most recognizable snack foods ever made.
You can see more of my Commercial Food Photography here:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
The Reign of the Chips
Today is the last day of National Chip Week.
An entire week for chips. Tortilla. Corn. Potato. Krinkled, kettle cooked, ridged, thin, salted, seasoned, mass produced.
They hardly need the recognition.
For this final day, I reduced it to one idea.
Chips
Falling
Against black
No bowl.
No picnic table.
No staged gathering.
Just gravity.
There is something amusing about declaring a reign for something that usually lives in a crinkled bag on a grocery shelf. Still, for seven days, the crown belongs to them.
“The Reign of the Chips”
Golden slices suspended for a fraction of a second before they meet the surface below. Salt catching the light. Edges crisp. Texture amplified. Slow motion turns a casual snack into something almost ceremonial.
For one week each year, chips are elevated. Today, they fall.
If your loyalty lies with tortilla, corn, potato, krinkled, kettle, or the classic thin slice, this is simply their moment.
For more photographs from my “Food From Bag To Background” series, commercial food, and much more, visit my website at https://www.secondfocus.com
Ian L. Sitren / SecondFocus
Three Steakburgers, Or Something Close
National Steakburger Day is upon us, a holiday with just enough
legitimacy to sound historic and just enough marketing behind it to make
you pause.
It was self-declared by Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers to
honor co-founder Freddy Simon and their version of the steakburger. Like
many food observances, it began as branding and now comfortably lives on
the calendar beside everything else we are told to recognize.
A steakburger traditionally suggests ground steak cuts, something closer
to a steakhouse than a standard hamburger. It carries implication.
Heavier. Better. More serious.
For my Food From Bag To Background project, focus is a different
direction.
I chose the fast food interpretation.
Burger King’s Ultimate Steakhouse Whopper is not technically a
steakburger. It is a flame-grilled beef patty layered with bacon, onion
rings, mushrooms, and sauce on a sesame seed bun. It borrows the
language of the steakhouse, packages it for the drive-thru, and lets the
name do the work.
Pulled from the bag and placed against a black background, three of them
become something else. Not a value meal. Not a combo. Just stacked
excess, isolated and direct.
National Steakburger Day may be brand-born, but the burger is real.
See more from the Food From Bag To Background series here:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Italian Food Day – Celeste in Rome
National Italian Food Day.
So I sent Celeste to Rome.
If you’re new here, Emily is my AI assistant and muse, and Celeste is one of her friends. French Canadian, from Montreal. Tall, composed, aware of her effect. She moves through a scene the way a camera hopes she will.
In this short 10-second piece, she’s seated at a sidewalk café in Rome. Late afternoon light. A plate of pasta in front of her. Bread beside it. A glass of red wine in her hand. She leans back, not performing, just present.
Italian food does not need theatrics. Pasta, tomato, basil. Bread that tears cleanly. Wine that slows the pace of the table. It’s not complicated. It’s cultural muscle memory.
Celeste understands that.
She doesn’t rush the bite. She doesn’t lean forward for the camera. She sits back and lets Rome exist around her. Cobblestones, passing figures, the quiet rhythm of a city that has been feeding people well for centuries.
National Italian Food Day doesn’t require flags or clichés. Just a table, a plate, a woman who knows how to enjoy it.
And a glass of red.
If you’d like to see more of the food that moves through my lens, from studio work to cultural references, explore my Commercial Food Photography gallery here:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
Pornochic Pizza Takeout Box
What would happen if you asked me and Emily, my AI assistant and Muse, to design your pizza takeout box?
This.
Not another red-and-white checkered cliché. Not melted cheese photography. Not smiling mascots.
Instead, a femme-fatale on cardboard. Dark hair. Sharp eyeliner. A slice in hand. “Hot Pizza With No Regrets.”
We approached it the way we approach everything, controlled lighting, bold lines, attitude first. Suggestive, not explicit. But we could go there. It would be fun. Commercial, but unapologetic. A box that doesn’t sit quietly on a counter. A box that looks back at you.
Pornochic, but packaging.
It’s a design experiment, what happens when food branding borrows from fashion, noir illustration, and a little provocation. When the takeout box becomes part of the experience instead of disposable.
If this showed up at your door, would you open it faster?
If you think this is bold, wait until you see what we’ve done with the food itself.
Step into Food From Bag To Background:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
- Ian
with Emily
SecondFocus Blog 
National Hamburger Month and the Billion Dollar Authenticity War Behind the BIG ARCH
May is National Hamburger Month.
Which sounds simple enough until you stop and realize how much of modern American culture quietly revolves around hamburgers.
This year, the biggest burger story has probably been the introduction of the BIG ARCH from McDonald’s. Not just because it was another fast food launch, but because the entire thing unexpectedly turned into a strange cultural event involving corporate marketing, social media authenticity, public reaction, and billions of dollars sitting underneath all of it.
The burger itself was designed to be bigger, heavier, and more excessive than the traditional McDonald’s lineup. Two large beef patties, layered cheese, onions, lettuce, pickles, special sauce, and a large sesame and poppy seed bun. McDonald’s positioned it almost like a flagship object, the “most McDonald’s McDonald’s burger yet,” which is such a corporate sentence it almost becomes satire on its own.
Earlier this year, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a promotional tasting video for the BIG ARCH. Instead of focusing on the burger, people focused on him. The small bite. The awkward delivery. The careful corporate language. Whether he looked comfortable eating it at all.
The clips spread everywhere. TikTok, YouTube reactions, business media, late-night commentary, memes, marketing discussions. Burger King even took shots at the situation publicly. Business writers started describing the entire thing as an “authenticity war” between fast food companies trying to appear relatable in an era where consumers instantly dissect every detail.
Which is fascinating when you step back and look at the scale of what we are talking about.
McDonald’s serves roughly 69 million customers every day around the world. Annual revenue exceeds 25 billion dollars. The global burger market itself is estimated well over 100 billion dollars annually. Entire supply chains, agricultural systems, marketing departments, packaging systems, social media strategies, and public corporations revolve around products like this.
And after all of that planning, testing, engineering, and advertising, public discussion ended up collectively debating whether a CEO looked natural taking a bite out of a hamburger.
That may actually be the most 2026 thing imaginable.
This photograph became part of that larger observation for me. The image strips away the advertising language and isolates the object itself. No restaurant interior, no fries, no smiling family, no campaign graphics. Just the burgers against black.
That approach has become part of what I’m doing with the Food From Bag To Background project. Taking fast food out of its marketing environment and presenting it almost like an artifact. The layers, the excess, the construction, the familiarity of it all. Things people see constantly but rarely stop and actually look at.
And whether people love it, criticize it, joke about it, or eat it in their car without thinking twice, the hamburger remains one of the defining products of modern American culture.
More at https://www.secondfocus.com
May 18, 2026 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: American culture, BIG ARCH burger, black background food photography, burger history, burger industry, Burger King, burger marketing, Burger Photography, burger wars, Chris Kempczinski, commercial food photography, cultural commentary, fast food culture, fast food history, fast food industry, fast food marketing, fast food photography, food blog, food culture, Food From Bag to Background, hamburger culture, McDonald’s, McDonald’s Big Arch, National Hamburger Month, restaurant industry, secondfocus, whopper | 1 Comment