# Ridiculously misleading advertisement **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2008, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483 "2008-12-03T09:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/1 "2008-12-03T09:15:01Z")
This may be a bit mild, so I offer in advance my fucking apologies. So I was merrily browsing the “web” when a kindly “banner” joyously leaped towards me and announced airfares from Tokyo-Narita to Vancouver starting at a low, low 36,000 yen, which translates into about 360 cool dollars. For that price, I thought, I might decide to take my little family to the Great Land of the North to bask in the warm love of family and friends we wished we say more often. So, click I do and off I am to Air Canada’s “web page”, where I find out that indeed, I can fly from Tokyo to Vancouver (and back!) for a measly 36,000 yen +60,000 in fuel surchage. WHAT - THE - FUCK Your fucking airfare isn’t 36,000 yen, it’s 96,000 yen, tabarnak. With airport taxes and whatnot, the “supplements” are _twice_ the advertised “price”. Now, not including the surcharge in the advertised price is actually standard practice here. It has always terribly bugged me, especially since the amount of surcharge varies greatly from one carrier to another and it’s always buried in the fine print, making it difficult to compare the actual cost of going to freeze my ass off. However, this spectacularly misleading example just sent me over the top. Hence this thread. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/2 "2008-12-03T09:36:14Z")
I’m sure you’re aware, and I fully support your rant, but the advertisers just don’t fucking care. Of the 10000 people they get to click on a ridiculously cheap flight banner ad, 9999 of them say what the fucking fuck and close the window. Some of these people also head to message boards and talk about what fucking douches the fucking fuckers are. That 1 person who clicked on it who was in the middle of finding flights somewhere might decide to run a search through that page’s engine and book a ticket, any ticket through the company. The internet, where the ads don’t have to be good, so long as they entice a million poo flinging monkeys to click on them. Not that you fall into this category **jovan** , it’s just the buckshot approach to advertising. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/3 "2008-12-03T09:46:20Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > This may be a bit mild, so I offer in advance my fucking apologies. > > So I was merrily browsing the “web” when a kindly “banner” joyously leaped towards me and announced airfares from Tokyo-Narita to Vancouver starting at a low, low 36,000 yen, which translates into about 360 cool dollars. For that price, I thought, I might decide to take my little family to the Great Land of the North to bask in the warm love of family and friends we wished we say more often. > > So, click I do and off I am to Air Canada’s “web page”, where I find out that indeed, I can fly from Tokyo to Vancouver (and back!) for a measly 36,000 yen +60,000 in fuel surchage. > > WHAT - THE - FUCK > > Your fucking airfare isn’t 36,000 yen, it’s 96,000 yen, tabarnak. With airport taxes and whatnot, the “supplements” are _twice_ the advertised “price”. > > Now, not including the surcharge in the advertised price is actually standard practice here. It has always terribly bugged me, especially since the amount of surcharge varies greatly from one carrier to another and it’s always buried in the fine print, making it difficult to compare the actual cost of going to freeze my ass off. However, this spectacularly misleading example just sent me over the top. > > Hence this thread. Do you happen to have a link to the ad? Not that I doubt you, but I’m just curious to look at it. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/4 "2008-12-03T09:53:42Z")
That sucks, **jovan**. We get the same stuff here all the f-ing time, and even now that it’s been outlawed to post misleading air-fares most low-budget carriers still do because the fines don’t outweigh the profits. Bastards! ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/5 "2008-12-03T09:55:50Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#): > > The internet, where the ads don’t have to be good, so long as they entice a million poo flinging monkeys to click on them. I hear what you’re saying, but on one hand, it’s an [Air Canada](http://www.aircanada.jp/ja/special-offer-detail.htm?cLoc=jp&offer=136&offergroup=43) ad, not some shady reseller. Second, this practice is thoroughly widespread, and it looks like it’s really a problem specific to this part of the world. If you search for fares on a North American site, like Yahoo! Travel, you get quotes for “Air, Taxes & Fees”, in other words what you actually pay. On Yahoo! Travel Japan, however, who knows? [Look at those flights!](http://abroad.air.travel.yahoo.co.jp/bin/aair_search?search=j&areacd1=0500&countrycd1=CA&citycd1=YVR&ap=TYO&dm=1&dd=15&tp=a&tp=b&x=77&y=6) However, those are just largely meaningless numbers. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/6 "2008-12-03T09:57:36Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > Do you happen to have a link to the ad? Not that I doubt you, but I’m just curious to look at it. Sorry, forgot to link in the op, but it’s in my reply to **BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed**. This site’s in Japanese only, though. The “english” button leads to another, different, offer. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/7 "2008-12-03T10:07:13Z")
> [@jovan](#): > > Sorry, forgot to link in the op, but it’s in my reply to **BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed**. This site’s in Japanese only, though. The “english” button leads to another, different, offer. Do you have a link to the site that produced the actual banner? And what is the English offer? ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/8 "2008-12-03T10:21:22Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > Do you have a link to the site that produced the actual banner? And what is the English offer? The banner was on the [Yahoo! Japan front page](http://www.yahoo.co.jp), though the ads cycle, so it’s probably something else now. It links directly to [this page](http://www.aircanada.jp/?banner_id=b5), the text in red on the right repeating the offer in the banner: 東京発バンクーバー往復が36,000円より！aircanada.jpからのご予約なら、4,000円割引に。 “Return flights to Vancouver from Tokyo from 36,000 yen! 4000 yen off if you make reservations from aircanada.jp.” Anyway, the banner isn’t particularly important. It’s that _no one_ is actually advertising the real cost of air tickets and this particular offer by Air Canada is the most ridiculous I’ve seen yet. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/9 "2008-12-03T11:15:38Z")
This pisses me off no end too. My wife and I are looking at going to Hong Kong for our wedding anniversary next year and all the airlines advertise “Hong Kong $749 return! plus taxes of $427”. So what looks like an Affordable Deal suddenly turns into a Not Very Affordable Deal At All, Really. It’s supposed to be illegal to advertise prices tax-exclusive here (I read a story in the paper saying that airlines aren’t allowed to advertise fares as “$X (plus Y taxes)” anymore, but that still doesn’t seem to stop anyone. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Henrichek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@Henrichek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henrichek)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/10 "2008-12-03T12:01:24Z")
[Use Adblock](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865) You’ll never see it again. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/11 "2008-12-03T12:32:31Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > It’s supposed to be illegal to advertise prices tax-exclusive here (I read a story in the paper saying that airlines aren’t allowed to advertise fares as “$X (plus Y taxes)” anymore, but that still doesn’t seem to stop anyone. :mad: Maybe you need more lawyers in your country. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/12 "2008-12-03T13:14:18Z")
> [@Henrichek](#): > > [Use Adblock](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865) > > You’ll never see it again. Thank you, but _this is not about the banner_, it’s about businesses that advertise meaningless prices that have nothing to do with what you _really_ have to pay. As it turns out, I travel often, and I’m frequently shopping for airline tickets. Figuring out the real cost is a major pain in the ass. _This_ is what I’m complaining about. Air Canada are particularly bad about this, and this time, they’ve really outdone themselve. If the ticket really was 350$, I would probably buy it. It’s not, though, after taxes, I’d likely have to pay over 1000$. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/13 "2008-12-03T14:29:06Z")
I share your anger. I forget which airline it was now, (forced out the bad memories) but I was burned by a similar “deal.” With my meager salary, I don’t think I can ever afford to visit 'murica. When these asshat airlines tease me with sub-1000 round trip tickets to Ohio, only to say, “Oh, mah bad! I meant 2000+ with a stopover in O Hare!” Grrrrrrrrrr… And it is not just on the Internet! I haven’t seen them in Japan, but when I lived in Ohio I remember seeing billboards with similar ads. They were even worse because you had to call a number or get online before being told to fuck yourself with razor wire. Somebody needs to invent not-airplanes soon, ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/14 "2008-12-03T15:18:11Z")
It sucks, but it seems to be the norm here. When I’m talking to my Japanese friends about airplane ticket prices one of the first questions they ask is “does that include the fuel surcharge?” ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/15 "2008-12-03T16:19:38Z")
But fuel prices are way down! Why the surcharge? ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/16 "2008-12-03T16:29:38Z")
I’m with you on the misleading ad hate. Other misleading ads, like the HeadOn ads that appear to be for headaches but never actually claim to be effective for anything at all tick me off too. Or how about those car ads in the sunday paper that advertise a toyota corolla for $6,000 but it is only 1 specific car and they never have it on the lot when you get there to buy it? :mad: ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/17 "2008-12-03T16:59:12Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > But fuel prices are way down! Why the surcharge? The problem is that many airlines “hedge” their fuel purchases, i.e., buy fuel in advance at a fixed price. Southwest is notoriously awesome at doing this, and their prescient fuel hedging has been the main reason for their ability to remain profitable over the past years when other airlines have been floundering. Other airlines, however, are not so good at it. Witness United. According to [this story](http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/airlines-hurt-b.html), United hedged 51% of its 2008 fuel at an (oil) price of $111 a barrel. Now, that was fine and dandy back in July and August, when real prices were hovering around $140 a barrel. But since then prices have been plummeting, and last week oil dropped below $50 a barrel for the first time in over 3 years. And United is still paying $111 for just over half of its fuel. I’m not sure how many other airlines are in a similar situation. ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/18 "2008-12-03T17:19:33Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > But fuel prices are way down! Why the surcharge? I think you may have asked tongue-in-cheek, on the idea that some airlines are still charging fuel surcharges _just because they can_. (I apologize if that’s not the case, and you were actually, sincerely asking) But as **mhendo** points out, many airlines are paying ridiculous prices for fuel right now, due to hedging. So, your fuel surcharge may still be helping to pay for gas–they just may be buying it at twice the current retail value. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/19 "2008-12-03T22:31:40Z")
Man, I hate that “tabarnak”. It’s not like I don’t use the Lord’s name in vain, but that’s going too far and it really grates. Especially when you’ve made it clear to your Canadien friend that it’s really offensive and horrible to you and they continue to say it. What? ---
**Author:** ![supergoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@supergoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supergoose)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483/20 "2008-12-03T23:15:59Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Man, I hate that “tabarnak”. It’s not like I don’t use the Lord’s name in vain, but that’s going too far and it really grates. Especially when you’ve made it clear to your Canadien friend that it’s really offensive and horrible to you and they continue to say it. > What? What does it mean? I’ve come across it in the Bones books (by Kathy Reichs) spelled as “tabernac” and have always meant to find out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculously-misleading-advertisement/475483.md?page=2)