# Sketchy marketing BS you've seen? **URL:** \ **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:** 5
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/81 "2015-01-31T15:00:10Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Why is that “sketchy”? Unless there’s something physically inherently wrong with that color of diamond, who’s getting cheated or deceived here? I dunno how it rates on the sketchy scale, but damn, if that is all it takes to manipulate people to buy your product by comparing its color to chocolate, I wonder what they could do with crap? ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/82 "2015-01-31T15:02:40Z")
Car salesman: “There’s never been a better time to buy a new vehicle.” As if, he’ll tell you, “this really isn’t a good time to buy a new vehicle.” Put me in the “virtually all marketing is bs” camp. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/83 "2015-01-31T15:56:36Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > _All_ marketing BS is sketchy. > [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Virtually all marketing I have ever seen is in some way sketchy and bullshit. > [@Dorjan](#): > > All in all, I’ve been pretty disappointed in the examples of sketchy marketing in this thread. I think the only way you can be underwhelmed (or just “whelmed,” as a writer pal of mine was wont to say) by these examples is to have retreated to such a cynical position that you “know” all marketing is BS and expect nothing else. The problem with that position, especially when it’s more a static one than a more continuallly considered one, is that it plays straight into the hands of nearly all modern marketing efforts. Most marketing does \*not \*expect you to believe what it claims - they know that you know that they know that you know that it’s largely bombast, baloney and BS. And it’s crafted to make use of exactly that wary misunderstanding… and deliver its message even though the recipient thinks all his shields are at maximum deflection. So yes, these examples and a million more should shock and annoy you, on a different level from the one you routinely use to process and respond to them. (That’d be the forelobes, Alex.) Reread these stinking streams of bullshit, and ask yourself: why do we put up with being blatantly lied to, from all directions, nearly every waking moment? When did it become normal to swim in a sea of festering bullshit and be all hipster and cool and aware and smartt to mutually pretend it’s of no consequence? ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/84 "2015-01-31T16:54:11Z")
ISP’s whether wifi, cable, and also cell phone providers get you to buy X brand or service, do so “and you can see speeds up to\_\_\_\_”(fill in the blank). The fact that it is capable of doing it, and can, doesn’t mean that it will, generally by a long shot, but they have been fairly successful in getting away with it. I think the FCC is trying to crack down on this fraudulent kind of advertising, but it seems to not matter much. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/85 "2015-01-31T21:44:10Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Reread these stinking streams of bullshit, and ask yourself: why do we put up with being blatantly lied to, from all directions, nearly every waking moment? When did it become normal to swim in a sea of festering bullshit and be all hipster and cool and aware and smart to mutually pretend it’s of no consequence? I don’t put up with it. HR guy interviewing older man for a job: Q: What is your biggest weakness as an employee? A: I’m too honest. Q: I don’t think that is really a weakness in an employee, try again. A: I really don’t give a shit what you or anyone else thinks. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/86 "2015-01-31T23:41:57Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I don’t put up with it. I’ll take your word for it. With respect to “honesty,” I’ll just say that I’ve interviewed a lot of people who are firmly convinced they are resolute self-directed consumers who are uninfluenced by marketing, and it rarely takes more than about fifteen minutes to prove otherwise. (This can’t be done other than in-person and on-site; it becomes too easy to evade questions and give false answers, whether they are lies or misbelief.) The bottom line is this: marketing does not work the way most people think or to ends most people comprehend. It uses tools most people are unaware of and would disbelieve if they were told. It stopped being driven by Don Draper hunches decades ago, and relies on deeply data-driven, science-based techniques. The average (intelligent, educated, informed) person’s notion of “marketing” bears the same correspondence to reality that “Gilligan’s Island” bears to the Donner Party. But I’ll take your word for it anyway. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/87 "2015-02-01T00:15:34Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > From what I understand, brown diamonds are generally sold for industrial use. So they’re taking industrial grade diamonds and selling them as jewelry. Are industrial grade diamonds inferior in some physical way to ones used in jewelry besides color? If not, why does this matter? You make it sound like brown diamonds are inherently trash grade, and so putting them in jewelry is deceptive. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/88 "2015-02-01T00:24:17Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > From what I understand, brown diamonds are generally sold for industrial use. So they’re taking industrial grade diamonds and selling them as jewelry. But if they’re only graded as industrial because they’re difficult to sell as gems, and if that in turn is only because they’re underappreciated, then there’s nothing very wrong with trying to persuade people to appreciate them. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/89 "2015-02-01T00:57:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Cover the black box and rely on the label to tell you what’s inside, especially with the large jars stocked right next to the peanut butter. Especially with the pretty little green sprig in the label design and most of the copy framing it. > > Then read the nutrition label. > > Nutella is 40%+ sugar, 40%+ palm oil, \<13% ground dried hazelnuts and a smidgen of “cocoa and skim milk.” It’s worse than most chocolate frosting in a can - candy in a bottle, which is how it’s sold and presented in Europe, as a tidbit taste treat. Here, it’s been positioned, literally and in its label content, as an alternative to PB, and sold in _kilo_ jars. With a label identifying it as “a hazelnut spread with cocoa and skim milk.” (Which it is not, in Europe; nothing much about the European labels presents it as anything but spreadable candy.) > > (PB, by the way, has to be 95% ground peanuts to qualify for the name. So even brands considered to be “loaded with sugar” have less, by weight, than most processed foods on the shelf.) > > It’s about like packaging and promoting Snickers bars as “a peanut food” with every stylistic and innuendo you can cram in to imply it’s a great healthy alternative. I have a friend who runs hazlenuts through a [Mr Peanut](http://4mrpeanut.com/rpbm.jpg) buttermaker, adds cocoa powder and a smidgeon of honey and it is worlds better than nutella. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/90 "2015-02-01T00:58:33Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Are industrial grade diamonds inferior in some physical way to ones used in jewelry besides color? If not, why does this matter? You make it sound like brown diamonds are inherently trash grade, and so putting them in jewelry is deceptive. The whole point of diamonds is that they are colorless. When I first saw “chocolate” diamonds, my reaction was, “No-one will fall for this flagrant up-marketing of third rate stones”, but they are kind of pretty. I like them. I’d wear them if I would ever wear diamonds. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/91 "2015-02-01T01:00:48Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I have a friend who runs hazlenuts through a [Mr Peanut](http://4mrpeanut.com/rpbm.jpg) buttermaker, adds cocoa powder and a smidgeon of honey and it is worlds better than nutella. There isn’t a type size large enough to say, “Duh!” properly. 🙂 Most nut butters are wonderful. Those made from rather expensive nuts are often wonderful-er. But the key there is “made from nuts” and not “you’re nuts to think this is in any way a nut butter…” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/92 "2015-02-01T05:48:34Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’ll take your word for it. > > With respect to “honesty,” I’ll just say that I’ve interviewed a lot of people who are firmly convinced they are resolute self-directed consumers who are uninfluenced by marketing, and it rarely takes more than about fifteen minutes to prove otherwise. (This can’t be done other than in-person and on-site; it becomes too easy to evade questions and give false answers, whether they are lies or misbelief.) > > The bottom line is this: marketing does not work the way most people think or to ends most people comprehend. It uses tools most people are unaware of and would disbelieve if they were told. It stopped being driven by Don Draper hunches decades ago, and relies on deeply data-driven, science-based techniques. The average (intelligent, educated, informed) person’s notion of “marketing” bears the same correspondence to reality that “Gilligan’s Island” bears to the Donner Party. > > But I’ll take your word for it anyway. 🙂 I don’t say I’m never taken in. I’m human. Kinda. But marketing is about hiding the bad and making it seem trivial in decision making. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/93 "2015-02-01T06:04:16Z")
> [@j666](#): > > The whole point of diamonds is that they are colorless. > > When I first saw “chocolate” diamonds, my reaction was, “No-one will fall for this flagrant up-marketing of third rate stones”, but they are kind of pretty. I like them. I’d wear them if I would ever wear diamonds. I disagree. As far as I can tell, this “diamonds need to be colorless” thing has not only been violated before, it’s purely aesthetic. There’s absolutely nothing wrong, IMO, with trying to change aesthetics through marketing. I mean, it’s marketing that created those aesthetics to begin with, so why not? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/94 "2015-02-01T08:55:21Z")
Grass-fed beef. Aside from, maybe kobe beef, ALL beef is grass-fed. Do you really think there is some food cheaper than grass? “Free Range Chicken” - it means the cages open for x minutes per day and there is a plausible route by which a chicken _could_ exit the building. They don’t. “Interest Free for 6 Months!” (yes, Paypal/ebay, I’m looking at you and your “Bill Me Later” credit card. The APR on this thing is 22% - and I’m sure they compound it. If you are foolish enough to actually let it sit there and accumulate fees, there is now a very expensive bomb over your head - if you are EVER late with a payment - anytime during that payoff (what, you added another bill to the card?) you get hit with that fee. Do we really need to discuss car ads? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/95 "2015-02-01T10:12:46Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Grass-fed beef. > > Aside from, maybe kobe beef, ALL beef is grass-fed. Do you really think there is some food cheaper than grass? Sure there is - anything that yields more food value per unit land area than pasture grass - for example silage made from whole maize plants (OK - still technically ‘grass’ - but not grazed in a pasture). ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/96 "2015-02-01T13:03:12Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Grass-fed beef. > > Aside from, maybe kobe beef, ALL beef is grass-fed. Do you really think there is some food cheaper than grass? Actually there is a big difference between grain fed and grass fed cows in terms of economics and health. PBS did a story on this a while back ago, so my memory may get a few things wrong, but I’d highly recommend watching the show that they ran on our meats. I think it was on Frontline or Nova. Grain fed cows are generally fed corn, which seriously disrupts their GI tract, and have to be slowly introduced to it just to get them to eat it, and I think also have to be given antibiotics when going this route. Grain fed cows fatten up a lot quicker, and can go to the slaughter house in less than two years, compared to about four or five for grass fed. The meat for consumers from grain fed cows is loaded with a lot more saturated fats, and I think less than omega 3 fats which is supposed to be a better fat for you. There were other things that concerned me too, but forget now what they were. > [@](#): > > “Free Range Chicken” - it means the cages open for x minutes per day and there is a plausible route by which a chicken _could_ exit the building. > They don’t. If so, that certainly would be misleading to me, if only left out for just a few minutes so that they could claim “Free Range Chicken”. > [@](#): > > “Interest Free for 6 Months!” (yes, Paypal/ebay, I’m looking at you and your “Bill Me Later” credit card. The APR on this thing is 22% - and I’m sure they compound it. If you are foolish enough to actually let it sit there and accumulate fees, there is now a very expensive bomb over your head - if you are EVER late with a payment - anytime during that payoff (what, you added another bill to the card?) you get hit with that fee. They try to hit me up on this every time I buy something, but always avoided it and certainly will continue to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/97 "2015-02-01T13:25:24Z")
The documentation fee is something that the car salesman tries to slip in between other stuff, after the purchase price, and TT&L (tax, title and license). Sales tax being the most, but title and license isn’t much, probably less than $100. The documentation fee is generally higher now than the title and license put together, depending on which state you live in. Some states put a cap on it, while in many others there is no cap like in my state of TX. Don’t be surprised if it is $150, $250 or even $500 or more. It’s not a tax in any state that I’m aware of, although at first they will try to give the impression that this is just something they have to collect on, and it’s not much they can do about it. But it’s just administrative fee the dealers try to collect on. So to get out of it, since you just paid out all of this money for a new car, all you generally have to do is tell them, “look, I know this isn’t a tax, and my state doesn’t collect on it. Another dealer said if I bought from them, they would waive the documentation fee, are you going to do the same or not?" They will. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/98 "2015-02-01T14:37:44Z")
[Frontline: Modern Meat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynCd66_E3es) ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/99 "2015-02-01T15:19:02Z")
I would swear that at some point in time and space I saw “Real Imitation” cheese or some such. Not so much sketchy as WTF does that mean? ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234/100 "2015-02-01T16:03:09Z")
> [@j666](#): > > The whole point of diamonds is that they are colorless. The [Hope diamond](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Diamond) is deep blue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sketchy-marketing-bs-youve-seen/711234.md?page=6)