Purely Visual

I'm quite a fan of the McCafe section that can sometimes be found in your common or garden neighbourhood McDonalds. The big cappuccino (needed spell-check for that one!) tastes pretty good to me and they do a delightfully unhealthy brownie. In fact, all the eatables look good, both on the shelves and in the big pictures behind the counters.

But here's the thing. All the big pictures have got this gnomic observation written somewhere, quite unobtrusively, on them: Visuals are for illustration purposes only. Now I'm profoundly puzzled as to what this means and why it is so carefully recorded on every picture. It seems to me utterly tautological. What else can a visual be for except as an illustration of sorts?

I assume it's some kind of legal disclaimer. Let's face it, nothing goes on behind those golden arches that isn't in the corporation's rule book. But what exactly is it disclaiming? Is it a kind of apology for any food item that doesn't look exactly like the picture depicts it, in case any one sues on the grounds that their sad ordinary brownie doesn't look like the super-brownie emblazoned above?

The odd thing is that the food is all on display. And looks good. Well, to my tired old eyes it does. This all goes to illustrate something; I just don't know what that something is.