A couple of weeks ago, a thread appeared on the AskReddit community, where the author, the user u/Fueled_By_Tacos (ain't a damn appropriate username?), asked the question: "What is the most overhyped fast food?"

Interestingly, today the thread has almost twice as many comments as upvotes, which means the discussion has been quite lively. So, let's find out together which fast foods people think are really overrated and overhyped.

If you think that fast food is something relatively modern, tracing its roots back to the 20th century, then you are definitely mistaken. The prototypes of fast food date back to ancient Rome, where a significant part of the inhabitants lived in rented rooms in large houses called "insulae." These rooms didn't have a separate kitchen, so the tenants usually bought ready-made food, eating it all down with bread soaked in wine.

Well, and then, already in the 19th century, we go to England, experiencing an industrial boom, and workers who urgently needed to go to the factory didn't always have enough time to cook their own food. Therefore, already in the middle of that century, small shops appeared selling standardized portions of typical British food - fish and chips.

By the way, even then, they were all heavily criticized from the outside - for example, by the heroes of Dickens' famous novels. So we can say that even then, fast food was quite overhyped.

Well, in America, the first fast food in the classical sense appeared in 1912 in New York. The Horn & Hardart company opened the first "Automat," where food and drinks were served through a vending machine. It gained lots of popularity - and then came the era of hamburgers, hot dogs and whatnot...

What has always distinguished fast-food chains is thoughtfulness down to the smallest detail, and marketing. Aggressive, viral and not always truthful. For example, in the first half of the last century, the White Castle company, which sold hamburgers en masse, faced scientific studies that questioned the health benefits of burgers. But they successfully dealt with these studies.

The company hired people who came to its restaurants during lunch breaks and ordered burgers while wearing white coats. That is, in the eyes of the average consumer of that time, they looked like doctors or scientists. So, well, if a doctor or scientist orders a burger, it means there is nothing harmful in it, right? The result was even an increase in customer flow.

However, marketing has always been an incredibly important component of the expenses of any fast-food chain. For example, McDonald's invested 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in advertising in the United States in 2022, according to Statista, thereby becoming one of the leaders in advertising costs among American companies.

So, yes - when buying almost any fast food from a popular chain, we pay not only for the food, but also for the advertising.

As for overhyped fast food - each of us actually has our own thoughts and points of view on this matter. And that, by and large, is what is wonderful about human society - you can always find like-minded people, as well as folks who will hotly dispute your views.

So please feel free to read this selection to the end and maybe add your own comments - after all, as the ancient Romans wisely said (while eating antique fast food with bread soaked in wine), "truth is born in debate."