# Most Egregious Examples of False Advertising **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 22, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725 "2005-03-22T15:56:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Sunshine\_and\_Smiles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunshine_and_Smiles)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/21 "2005-03-23T02:28:14Z")
> [@Tentacle Monster](#): > > Well, you gotta be careful with personal ads. Nice zing! ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/22 "2005-03-23T04:39:02Z")
One thing every foreigner learns within a week after coming to Japan: never buy a sandwich from a convenience store. Without exception, every one is put together the same way: one thick piece of filling pressed against the front of the wrapper, with the rest of the sandwich just empty bread. Some people I know deliberately go out and buy them when friends are coming from overseas to visit just to show them how staggeringly deceptive the things are. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/23 "2005-03-23T06:32:10Z")
That reminds me of those sneaky companies that manufacture the trick cases for blank CDs: You get a spindle of maybe 30 CDs, conspicuously packaged with the exact same size cylinder as a 50 CD holder, but the label is conveniently obscuring the piece of foam insulation on the bottom taking up half the space that you naively think is filled with CDs. How is that legal? :mad: ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/24 "2005-03-23T07:13:45Z")
[Resurrection Health Care](http://www.reshealth.org/) I mean, I’m sure they’re good, but that name’s promising a whole lot, don’t you think? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/25 "2005-03-23T13:32:21Z")
> [@KJ](#): > > That reminds me of those sneaky companies that manufacture the trick cases for blank CDs: You get a spindle of maybe 30 CDs, conspicuously packaged with the exact same size cylinder as a 50 CD holder, but the label is conveniently obscuring the piece of foam insulation on the bottom taking up half the space that you naively think is filled with CDs. How is that legal? :mad: Because it says “30 CDs” somewhere on the package? :rolleyes: No one’s mentioned spam yet? Is there any spam that _isn’t_ false advertising? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/26 "2005-03-23T14:06:24Z")
Last night, as I began to eat my dinner of pepperoni pizza Lean (not Hot) Pockets, I thought, I better do some research regarding that pepperoni question. Unfortunately I had already consumed part of the first Pocket so this is based on a sample size of one. It seemed pretty consistent with what I have experienced in past repasts. I cut open the Pocket and found inside approximately 18 partial pepp slices, ranging from a tiny triangle to a strip taken across the widest part of a slice. I would say that they added up to approximately five whole slices. But the bits do make it seem like more when you eat it, making for a satisfactory taste sensation. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/27 "2005-03-23T14:07:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Is there any spam that _isn’t_ false advertising? (Looking into pants, seeing no change). Sadly, no. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/28 "2005-03-23T20:08:02Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > My other favourite is aspirin. No, no other pain reliever works any better than Bayer. No kidding. Because they’re exactly the same as Bayer…they’re aspirin. No. There’s acetaminophen (Anacin, Tylenon), ibuprofen (Advil) and several others. If you mean generic acetylsalicylic acid then you are correct but Aspriin is a Bayer trademark. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/29 "2005-03-23T20:23:22Z")
> [@Padeye](#): > > No. There’s acetaminophen (Anacin, Tylenon), ibuprofen (Advil) and several others. If you mean generic acetylsalicylic acid then you are correct but Aspriin is a Bayer trademark. [Aspirin](http://www.bartleby.com/61/88/A0468800.html) was originally a trademark, but it has long since become a generic term. You can go to the grocery store or the drug store and buy a bottle of house brand acetylsalicylic acid tablets with the word “aspirin” on the label in nice big letters. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/30 "2005-03-23T20:32:54Z")
It may be a term, but when when you get down to it, it’s just a bunch of synthetic tree bark or [flowers](http://starryskies.com/articles/dln/1-01/asprin.html) . ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/31 "2005-03-23T21:04:35Z")
Wal-Mart’s price rollbacks. Usually, the item is either “rolled back” to the same price it was or the price has actually been increased. I recently found some dish soap that had been “rolled back” from $2.88 to $2.50. The sign announcing the rollback was mounted on the shelf by hanging it on a clear plastic strip. I was easily able to lift it away from the front of the shelf to see what the original price was. Yep. $2.50. I worked at Wal-Mart for about a year, and I saw first-hand a lot of this sort of thing going on- fresh corn that had been 22 cents an ear the day before, come in to work the next day and find that it has been “rolled back” to 25 cents, with a sign over the barrel that said “was 33 cents” per ear. Wally World is also really great at having items be priced at one price on the shelf and ring at a higher price at the register. I don’t mean just items that were on sale, although this was most common. Items at their regular price would ring at prices much higher than the price tag on the shelf. The cashiers would do price overrides and punch in a code indicating that the item had rung at the wrong price so the programmers could be alerted and fix the “error”, but I would be doing price overrides on the same items for months. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/32 "2005-03-24T00:45:55Z")
\*\*Most Egregious Examples of False Advertising \*\* Two words … Psychic Network. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/33 "2005-03-24T00:58:33Z")
> [@the first supraliminal](#): > > There’s an ad that runs constantly in my paper for “mint gold 1920 coins” that are actually new, and privately minted, and not collectable. Each sentence in the ad seems to be true, but still the totality is an outright lie. Ah, they’re 1920s style death coins! I always wanted to do that!!! And, my own contribution to the thread are New York Style (I’m forgetting the brand now) bagels. We buy Cinnamon Raisin Swirl pretty much every week. This week, I notice the package says, “Now, with more cinnamon swirls and raisins!” So Monday morning comes and I split one open. Never has a bagel been more bereft of cinnamon raisin goodness! I have never had problems with them before, but now that they’re tooting their own horn–bland as all get out. Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/34 "2005-03-24T02:13:44Z")
Fry’s Electronics! If you have one in your area then I’m sure you’ve seen their full page adverts in the newspaper. They show a picture of a new laptop with the price of something like $699.00. The fine print says no rain checks, limited to quanity on hand, etc. Many times you’ll go to Fry’s to check out this $699 laptop only to find they only had one, it’s the demo model and it is missing a few keys. Or they’ll have a “great” sale on a video card that starts friday (no rainchecks, etc, etc). When you arrive friday at noon to buy one up you’re told they’ve sold out. Fry’s computer system lets the salespeople look up how many they had at the start of the day and how many have been sold. If you ask the sales rep how many they started with that day, many times the answer is ZERO. Their excuse is the adverts are placed by the main office in California and the main office can’t see inventory in the stores. Total BS. Their system shows current inventory at each store by store name. I’ve even seen their adverts show a different picture for the item on sale. The Kogi LCD monitor on sale for $229.99 but the picture in the paper shows a Viewsonic monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/35 "2005-03-24T02:53:06Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > One thing every foreigner learns within a week after coming to Japan: never buy a sandwich from a convenience store. Without exception, every one is put together the same way: one thick piece of filling pressed against the front of the wrapper, with the rest of the sandwich just empty bread. Some people I know deliberately go out and buy them when friends are coming from overseas to visit just to show them how staggeringly deceptive the things are. > [@KJ](#): > > That reminds me of those sneaky companies that manufacture the trick cases for blank CDs: You get a spindle of maybe 30 CDs, conspicuously packaged with the exact same size cylinder as a 50 CD holder, but the label is conveniently obscuring the piece of foam insulation on the bottom taking up half the space that you naively think is filled with CDs. How is that legal? As Scarlett76 suggested: “Serving Suggestion”? ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/36 "2005-03-24T03:13:27Z")
> [@KJ](#): > > That reminds me of those sneaky companies that manufacture the trick cases for blank CDs: You get a spindle of maybe 30 CDs, conspicuously packaged with the exact same size cylinder as a 50 CD holder, but the label is conveniently obscuring the piece of foam insulation on the bottom taking up half the space that you naively think is filled with CDs. How is that legal? :mad: In addition to what was already said (it says 30 CDs on the wrapper) by using the oversized container, CD manufacturing companies can use the same size plastic container for both packs of 30 & 50 CDs, thus simplify their inventory, and saving a bit of money. So it makes perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/37 "2005-03-24T04:10:28Z")
How about the new Army recruiting commercials? “If I could help 500 people . . . then they’d be successful . . . and I’d be successful.” :mad: It’s the **Army,** kids, not the fucking Peace Corps! You think they’re gonna send you to Iraq to teach kids to read? ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/38 "2005-03-24T08:56:05Z")
> [@Padeye](#): > > No. There’s acetaminophen (Anacin, Tylenon), ibuprofen (Advil) and several others. If you mean generic acetylsalicylic acid then you are correct but Aspriin is a Bayer trademark. Ah. I was a bit inprecise in my language. I shouldn’t have said “pain relievers”. My point was, of course, that Bayer tries to make some claim that it is signifigentlydifferent than generic aspirin…when in fact they are the same chemical and basically you’re paying for their advertising buget. Actually I wasn’t aware aspirin was orginally a trademark…but as MBruckner pointer it (much like heroin) had long since passed into commen useage. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/39 "2005-03-24T13:23:29Z")
“One size fits all” (Given my 14AA feet, my 38" sleeves, and my XXXL, gloves this is a particularly eggrious lie!" ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725/40 "2005-03-24T13:34:57Z")
Gerber baby food. Big picture of a baby head on the label…and what is it made of? Smashed boiled carrots. Not a trace of dead baby in sight. What’s the point of even buying it then? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-egregious-examples-of-false-advertising/295725.md?page=3)