# Sketchy marketing BS you've seen?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 29, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234 "2015-01-29T16:27:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/1 "2015-01-29T16:27:17Z")
So I was looking for some feta cheese a while back, and ran across a brand with a suitably Greek name, and the words “Imported” on it. So I picked it up to get a better look at the actual quantity in the tub, and noticed that the cheese was actually produced in… Argentina! Not at all Greek, but definitely imported.
I got to wondering what other sketchy marketing tricks people see on products and ads? Anyone got any good ones?
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### Author:  [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/2 "2015-01-29T16:39:07Z")
“Fair and Balanced”
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/3 "2015-01-29T16:41:41Z")
Going out for business sale!
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/4 "2015-01-29T16:56:46Z")
Cheap imitation balsamic vinegar being marketed as “balsamic vinegar of Modena” to hide the fact that it’s just wine vinegar with artificial coloring.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/5 "2015-01-29T17:07:47Z")
I guess I should clarify; not just meaningless marketing words (i.e. “New and Improved!”), but rather deliberately deceptive, obfuscatory or confusing marketing methods or slogans.
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### Author:  [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/6 "2015-01-29T18:16:11Z")
In a convenience store last week I purchased a glass bottle of what was labeled “Pure Cranberry Juice." In the car I read the ingredients and was surprised to see HFCS listed. Turns out the brand name was “Pure." (I’m fairly certain it said juice and not cocktail)
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/7 "2015-01-29T18:19:27Z")
> [@Personal](#):
>
> In a convenience store last week I purchased a glass bottle of what was labeled “Pure Cranberry Juice." In the car I read the ingredients and was surprised to see HFCS listed. Turns out the brand name was “Pure." (I’m fairly certain it said juice and not cocktail)
That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about!
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/8 "2015-01-29T18:40:18Z")
> [@Personal](#):
>
> In the car I read the ingredients and was surprised to see HFCS listed. Turns out the brand name was “Pure." (I’m fairly certain it said juice and not cocktail)
I’m pretty sure that would run afoul of the FTC - Cecil wrote a column about that: [How can Grape-Nuts cereal contain no grapes or nuts? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/136/how-can-grape-nuts-cereal-contain-no-grapes-or-nuts)
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/9 "2015-01-29T18:43:41Z")
100% cranberry juice, IIRC, is really bitter and astringent, which is why it’s almost always sweetened or cut with apple juice.
Where it gets deceptive, IMO, is when you have juice blends with names like “Blueberry Pomegranate” which are almost _entirely_ apple juice and the flavoring is artificial.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/10 "2015-01-29T19:07:37Z")
This forum isn’t big enough to begin to list an abstract of a summary of a selection of representative samples of randomly chosen marketing BS. OP, what _are_ you thinking? Are you trying to DOS the board from within?
🙂
Probably the most extreme single example was a mortgage ad that ran nonstop on the low-grade channels around 2007. It screamed about a 1% rate and showed a table of absurd payments - something like $375/month for a $500k mortgage. You had to watch it closely and several times (without going deaf and/or barfing) to catch the brief fine print… that was the\* first month’s rate **only** \*. Past that it was an exceptionally egregious ARM. And that is “exceptionally egregious for the latter stages of the mortgage hysteria.”
Hard to top that one with yet another breathless adjective-with-a-bang in a splash on a drink bottle.
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### Author:  [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/11 "2015-01-29T20:17:58Z")
> [@Personal](#):
>
> In a convenience store last week I purchased a glass bottle of what was labeled “Pure Cranberry Juice." In the car I read the ingredients and was surprised to see HFCS listed. Turns out the brand name was “Pure." (I’m fairly certain it said juice and not cocktail)
I’ve heard that products can say something like ‘100% Cranberry Juice’ to indicate that 100% of the juice is from cranberries, but it doesn’t mean that the bottle only has cranberry juice in it. They can also put raw sewage in the bottle, but as long as the juice is only from cranberries, they can put 100% Cranberry Juice on the label.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/12 "2015-01-29T20:29:07Z")
You sometimes see “whole grain” popcorn. All popcorn is “whole grain” because it is made from whole popcorn kernels. With some foods, yes, whole grain is special and could possibly represent a more balanced product. For popcorn, no, it’s just popcorn, and maybe a crapton of butter.
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### Author:  [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/13 "2015-01-29T22:10:13Z")
[Moderator Hat ON]
I think this’ll get better responses in MPSIMS.
[Moderator Hat OFF]
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### Author:  [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/14 "2015-01-29T22:16:55Z")
I have seen many car adverts which claim an amazingly low monthly payment, but then when you look at the fine print it turns out that there’s a huge balloon payment at the end of the loan. So those low monthly payments are effectively only paying off half of the loan.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/15 "2015-01-30T00:14:03Z")
According to Mort Rosenblum’s excellent book, _Olives_, Italy exports more olive oil than it produces. How does it do this? It buys oil cheaply from Greece, Spain or Algeria, labels the bottles “Bottled In Italy”, and exports it.
That’s not to say that the other countries can’t produce excellent olive oil. In fact, my favorite kind is Greek. It’s just that Italian olive oil has a cache that drives up the price and it can be sold for a lot more money.
Me, I just buy the Greek kind labeled as such, from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. Cheap and good.
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### Author:  [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/16 "2015-01-30T01:20:02Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> … the cheese was actually produced in… Argentina! Not at all Greek, but definitely imported …
A bit off-topic for the intent of your thread, but there are a substantial number of Greeks in Argentina:
> **[Greek Argentines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks_in_Argentina)**
>
> Greek Argentines (Greek: Ελληνοαργεντινοί; Spanish: Greco-argentinos) are Argentine citizens of Greek descent or Greek-born people who reside in Argentina. Despite not being as large as other Europe communities, the Greeks have contributed a lot to their new country. The first immigrants arrived at the end of the 18th century, while the bulk of immigration occurred during the first half of the 20th century.
> Rear Admiral Giorgos "Jorge" Kolmaniatis, a native from Hydra who arrived in the United P...
and it’s plausible to me that some of them could be making feta cheese (“just like you’d get back home”), and exporting some of it.
Argentina exports plenty of fruit and wine, so why not cheese, as well? 🙂
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/17 "2015-01-30T02:45:45Z")
> [@Personal](#):
>
> In a convenience store last week I purchased a glass bottle of what was labeled “Pure Cranberry Juice." In the car I read the ingredients and was surprised to see HFCS listed. Turns out the brand name was “Pure." (I’m fairly certain it said juice and not cocktail)
What were the ingredients?
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2015, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/18 "2015-01-30T03:12:56Z")
Green.
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### Author:  [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/19 "2015-01-30T03:14:13Z")
> [@filmore](#):
>
> I’ve heard that products can say something like ‘100% Cranberry Juice’ to indicate that 100% of the juice is from cranberries, but it doesn’t mean that the bottle only has cranberry juice in it. They can also put raw sewage in the bottle, but as long as the juice is only from cranberries, they can put 100% Cranberry Juice on the label.
I don’t think that would be allowed in the US, but you might be able to find information on that here:
[FDA Food Section](http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/default.htm)
Or maybe here, [21 CFR 101](http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm)
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/20 "2015-01-30T03:18:41Z")
15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance!
You all heard me say _“could,”_ right?
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