20 Times Reality Didn't Even Come Close To The Expectations Placed Upon It

Ashley Hunte
An image of a cute mug, followed by an image of the "actual" product.
reddit | kunodulksna

If there's one thing I've learned about life, it's to manage your expectations. Not even just with things like relationships or finance, either. I'm actually talking about the kinds of products you buy versus what they advertise.

These people learned the hard way that some things just don't live up to our expectations. I'm not gonna lie, these pictures have me cringing a little bit.

"Gigantic box of Jelly Babies less than half full."

An image showing a large box of British candy, followed by an image inside the box, showing that it's only actually half full.
reddit | koopa35

I hate when companies make their packaging so much bigger than the actual product. It feels like false advertising. I mean, yes, it says one kilogram, but how many of us can actually tell at a glance how many candies that would be in the box.

"The customer service was great, at least."

An image of a model wearing a pair of socks with cartoon grim reapers riding cats, versus the actual product which is incredibly faded.
reddit | Pornchips

On the plus side, the socks almost look like how they're supposed to. I guess that's the biggest problem with buying things online. They always look better than they do in person.

"Pizza Guys Cinnamon Twists."

Small churro-like bites of food surrounding a dipping sauce. In a separate picture, similar food items are in a foil package, but are severely burned.
reddit | RazoJane

See, I could excuse the lack of presentation. But the one thing about those cinnamon twists that's really offensive is the fact that they're burned. Like, did no one check on them before selling them to someone?

"Little Caesar's Twix Brownie."

An image of brownies with ganache and chocolate bar bits on top, followed by an image of liquified chocolate on a plate.
reddit | kenzeeee

The picture that Little Caesar's is advertising looks way too good to be true. But you still probably wouldn't expect to get what looks like literal diarrhea on a plate.

"Found this at the store..."

A pink container meant to hold salt or sugar. Below it is a box, showing the fact that the S on it should be larger than it actually is.
reddit | JakubFAMAKAamogus3am

Apparently those containers are to hold kitchen stuff, like coffee and sugar. I'm honestly more confused by their appearance than I am offended by the way the S on the actual container looks so sad in comparison to the packaging.

"Sponge Rob."

A package for a SpongeBob popsicle next to the actual popsicle, which has lopsided candy eyes and a smile that's much too large.
reddit | josiya

I hate everything about this. Like, sure, those popsicles that are made to look like characters never actually look like the characters in question. But that doesn't mean they have to look like demons.

"This looks like a severed tongue."

A Resse's chocolate peanut butter heart package, next to the actual product, which is melted in a weird way.
reddit | MaggieBurgio

To be fair, though, the image on the package doesn't look that much better. I think they should've probably used a different shade of pink for the heart.

"Ice Cream Cake from Baskin-Robbins."

A cute heart-shaped cake with icing made to look like two ice cream cones, next to an image of the same cake, but worse.
reddit | gingerlovingmeow

Sometimes I wonder about cake artists. Like, obviously there are some bakeries out there where they're actually trained to make beautiful cakes. But what about underpaid teens that work at, like, Dairy Queen or something?

"This watermelon popsicle..."

A package advertising a cute watermelon popsicle, next to the actual product, which is strangely misshapen.
reddit | LadySchul

Somehow, this one is worse than the SpongeBob popsicle. Like, this almost looks like it's ready to melt, which isn't helping things one bit.

"Bold and Baked."

A package advertising a large, seasoned chip. A hand holds a chip next to the one on the package, showing ho under-seasoned and small it is.
reddit | fr284

The chip in the person's hand doesn't even look like it came out of that bag. It doesn't even look like they'd be sold in the same section of a store! What kind of evil sorcery is this!?

"Subway Pizza."

Subway pizzas as advertised, compared to the messy versions you'd actually get in a store.
reddit | LilliKelso

To be honest, Subway and pizza don't really sound like they should go together, anyway. So, like, is anyone actually surprised that this is how Subway pizzas end up looking?

"The cheesy bite pizza from Pizza Hut looks different."

A burnt pizza next to a similar pizza that looks much more appetizing.
reddit | KileyElgin

It's amazing how fast food can let us down in so many different ways. It's almost like minimum wage fast food workers don't care enough to make their stuff look good!

"I think I made a mistake."

A strange looking striped doll next to a box for a sock monkey.
reddit | Shaman04

Don't you hate it when you go to buy or make a sock monkey, but end up with a sock voodoo doll?

For real though, the amount of exposed stitches in that thing are really starting to bother me.

"No, it did not taste good."

A microwave risotto meal that looks appetizing on the box, but a bit like vomit in real life.
reddit | Aknita

A part of me wanted to say that the microwave meal probably looks more appetizing once you heat it up. But I've had them before, and they never look or taste as good as the picture.

Those are two different things.

A box full of strawberry shortcake ice cream bars that are covered in cake crumbs. The actual product sits in front of the box, with basically no crumbs on it.
reddit | birdwingsbeat

You know, at least most of the other things in this list actually tried to kind of look like their packages. This is basically just a different ice cream bar. Beyond disappointing.

"Completely inedible tempura maki. Why is it swimming in sauce???"

An image of a sushi roll with tempura and spicy mayo on it. A second image below shows the "real" version of the product, which is soggy and submerged in sauce.
reddit | AmandineLeroy

Sushi is hard to make perfectly, but even harder to make badly. I have no idea how this one got so wrong, but it doesn't look like the kind of thing you should ever put in your mouth.

"Over 25% of the cookies were missing an M&M. Stupid elf has one job…"

A box of M&M chocolate chip cookies that show they have 3 M&Ms, while the actual cookies only have two.
reddit | covercash

This is, like, only mildly frustrating. At least there are still M&Ms on the cookies. But still, the fact that they show three but you only get two? Rude.

At least the M&M ones aren't as bad as this one.

A large chocolate ship cookie that looks slightly burnt and has all of its chocolate chips concentrated in the middle. The package shows it isn't supposed to look like that.
reddit | NeutralRogan

On the plus side, it's probably the one thing on this list that's the closest to looking like the packaging. But at the same time, the placement of the chocolate chips makes me want to tear all my hair out.

"Left is what I wanted and Right is what I got."

A hand showing acrylic nails painted to look natural, next to an image of a hand with big, bulging fake nails.
reddit | 43V3RnH3LL

Getting fake nails has always stressed me out because I'm afraid of something like this happening. I don't want to spend money on something I'd immediately try to get off my hands.

"Home decor store pic from the website vs reviews."

A cute mug-like item with a face and appendages that resemble arms. A second image shows a similar item, but it looks much more sinister.
reddit | kunodulksna

I feel bad for the person who bought this thing and learned the hard way that it doesn't look anything like the advertisement. But I'm also glad they could leave a review to show people what this monstrosity actually looks like.