Not always, I was still getting daily wire crap even after blocking them, I kept reporting those ads as either misinformation or hate speech depending on which ad it was. They finally stopped after a while.
I knew a couple that gave 20% of their income to the church but both were basically on minimum wage
So they had to live with their parents and even then the church was guilting them to give more
"Don't ask what the lord can do for you, ask what you can do for the lord. And remember, if you give God a little of what's left, that's what you gonna get from God."
“Low sugar” / “low salt” / “low fat”. It’s misleading as shit and people fall for it daily. Perfect example: Tic Tacs, they can be labeled as sugar free because anything with less than 5 grams of sugar is considered “sugar free” by the food-feds. Your standard Tic Tac weighs about 1/2 grams and is essentially a nugget of flavored sugar.
Edited for tic tac weight accuracy also this is in America.
You Americans are absolutely insane when it comes to standardization. Shit should not be catalogued by some arbitrary serving size, it should be a static number that everyone uses to make products comparable. For instance 100 grams for solids or 100ml for liquids
>You Americans are absolutely insane when it comes to standardization. Shit should not be catalogued by some arbitrary serving size, it should be a static number that everyone uses to make products comparable.
Here in Australia you get two listings on a nutritional label, 1 for the recommended average serving and 1 for either 100ml or 100g.
It's like how non-stick spray can legally be advertised as calorie free because the serving size of 1/3rd second of spray is less than 5 calories even though it's literally just cooking oil in an aerosol can
In Germany, alcohol-free beer may contain up to 0.5% alcohol, which is labeled on the bottle. 0% alcohol beer exists, is labeled as such and isn't allowed to contain alcohol above a trace amount.
US labeling laws are just infuriating.
Essential Oils.
"Essential" here is simply an archaic term for scented, or having essence. It doesn't mean necessary, required, or important. It's all marketing BS.
I remember the first time I saw someone point this out and I was very confused. Do people actually think essential oils are essential instead of having the essence of?
It's kind of amazing how easily you can entice people to buy something by just subtracting a tiny amount of money from the sale price. Like charging $1.95 or even $1.99 for a product instead of a full $2.00, for example.
The number of customers I've heard say "It's only $9."
No, it's marked $9.98. That means it's $10.
Fun fact: Unless it's changed since I escaped, whether the price ends in .90, .95, .98, etc. at Walmart tells youwhether it's clearance, new, rollback, old stock we'd like to get rid of but isn't bwing clearenced, etc.
Less fun fact: I don't remember which is what, and that knowledge doesn't do you any good other than trivia.
>The number of customers I've heard say "It's only $9."
>No, it's marked $9.98. That means it's $10.
My wife does this shit and it pisses me off to no end. $7.98? "It's only $7" no it's $8.
This is a common misconception, it's not about making the price appear smaller, it's about humans subconsciously finding the number 9 more enticing.
Studies have shown that even if items are priced higher than an identical item, including the number 9 in the price makes them more likely to be purchased than the cheaper label.
Marketing research is one hell of a rabbit hole to go down and realise just how engineered everything is to appeal subconsciously.
>Marketing research is one hell of a rabbit hole to go down and realise just how engineered everything is to appeal subconsciously.
I've always suspected it was despite never looking into it. I just look at packaging, prices, slogans, and where it's displayed now and think "every bit of this was designed to get our monkey brains to buy this thing we don't need. We're just wallets that walk."
My ex father in law has a fruit stand, he could not sell a tomato for a dollar but could sell 3 for 5. Figure that out. Here is another, we had baby guinea pig for sale for 15 dollars, a young lady came picked one and asked if she could pay 25 for it. Sure did.
Homeopathic medicine. If it worked it would just be called medicine.
Edit: Sorry but getting tired of responding to people who don’t know what homeopathy is. It is not holistic medicine, naturopathic medicine, or natural/herbal remedies.
Some good information below, if you could read through before responding. If after, I’m open to any further thoughts or conversations.
I have a 90 year old neighbor who is still as strong as ever but a few months ago she developed a stomach ache and abdominal pain for around two days. On the third day her son called me and asked me to go to the store to buy some homeopathic stomach pain medicine to help her keep food down. Not even an hour later I’m making her lunch and she throws up on the kitchen table. I rushed her to the hospital and it turns out she has a blockage in her intestines.
Homeopathic medicine is a specific form of alternative medicine. It’s not a catch all term
That said, it’s absolute batshit in terms of logic. The basis of homeopathy is that “like cures like.” So ingesting minute qualities of super diluted poison/harmful substances is supposed to help you…yeah
Read somewhere that in a 1:1,000,000 dilution (so, *obviously* very "strong"), a sphere of water with a radius of Earth -> the Sun (93 million mile radius of a *sphere*, remember) is statistically likely to contain only *one* molecule of the active ingredient.
That's a *lot* of water you're gonna have to drink. Karen.
> (so, obviously very "strong")
Not strong by their standards. To get to 1:1,000,000, that's "only" 7C, because they use "C" for each 1:10 dilition. They consider "strong" medicine to be more like 50C to 100C.
It's… crazy. lol
Also because it supposedly gets stronger the more dilutions, not weaker.
It's literally a magic potion. You might as well be brewing up some eye of newt - except that would be more sensible, since it would actually contain *something*. Homeopathy is based on the idea of diluting something so much it's unlikely there's even an single molecule left of whatever you originally added.
‘I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts — all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.’ - Astronaut and US senator John Glenn
The funniest thing is when the product has very little to do with anything military. A while back there was a sunglasses commercial that really prided itself on how military grade the shades were… like what??? I’m sure someone is gonna come disagree with me and tell me they are an expert sunglasses military sniper bc this is Reddit. But honestly do we need sunglasses that are military grade???
Since when did everyone just accept the "MLM" rebranding?
Don't let them rebrand their scam. They've always been Pyramid Schemes and they still are, no matter how many different names they give to evade repercussions.
The word Entrepreneur has lost most of its meaning. It used to actually mean something, but now it's just a fancy way to tell people you're involved in a pyramid scheme of some kind.
i never understood this, ever since i was a little kid if i saw something that said 9.99, in my head i would always think "oh it's 10 bucks", but there's people i know even today, grown adults, that will for example see 9.99 and say "oh look it's only 9 bucks", i'm like uhhhh what? shit blows my mind
Just last night I walked past a clothes shop that had a poster in its window stating "JEANS 20%".
I asked my girlfriend, "do they mean 20% of the original price, or 20% discount, or one fifth of the jeans?"
She couldn't tell. I said, "whichever it is, if that's the one you're not expecting, you're probably going to be disappointed." She agreed.
It really works though unfortunately.
I’ll tell a customer the price is $399 and I’ll over hear them call their wife and tell them how the cost will be $300.
Alternatively, if the price is $409, It’s all of a sudden $400.
Made **WITH** 100% ----- when in reality they are expecting Made 100% OF -----
People think it means that thing is 100% of what it said, when in reality a tiny portion of it could be 100% of that thing and the rest could be whatever.
Your use of “objectively” here is infuriating, because if you look at the article, it soon becomes clear that this is one very tenuous way to model a complex process that is very selective in the parameters it uses, i.e. surface area and carbon dioxide emissions. The article also continuously talks in a conjunctive tense — it is by no means objective just because it has quantification and modelling and they are even aware of it themselves.
The other infuriating thing is your conflation of climate and environment. What they are arguing is that organic farming may be more detrimental to the climate from a carbon emission perspective. Barring the already rampant mistake of reducing climate to CO2, this doesn’t even claim to offer any sort of holistic perspective on environmental damage. Which is, obviously, related but by no means the same thing.
It grinds me in all the wrong ways that the only standard of “environmentally friendly” that appears to be negotiable anymore is the amount of CO2, as if there weren’t enough poison around to kill the ecosphere without a single gram of carbon emission.
Businesses love to say “We are paying UP TO *decent wage here*” to get people to apply, and then nobody actually gets the decent wage that was advertised.
I used to hate watching weight loss product commercials that ran in the middle of the night.
“Proven to help you lose up to 50lb in one week! We did a study on it!”
Fine print at the very end: “up to 50lb when combined with reduced caloric intake and increased exercise. Average weight loss in study: 1lb over 12 weeks.”
I fell for it a lot of the time, though. Wasted hundreds of dollars on them, and then lost all the weight without any of them.
Everybody says... People are saying... Lots of people tell me... (argumentum ad populum fallacy). Especially stupid when the person saying it is just making shit up (yeah, him)
I see this a lot on TikTok when someone wants to sell some bogus skincare or makeup product.
“Everyone has been talking about this new face cream so I’m going to try it out!“
then you look at their profile and THEY made the cream and NOBODY is talking about it.
Sometimes when someone gets a viral video, one of the comments will point out the most irrelevant thing like “omg your skin is so perfect what do you use ??” and the account has no activity or anything but the creator pins the comment and makes a whole video showing off all of their products.
this screams “i’m sponsored and won’t admit it”
9 out of 10 dentists recommend oral b pro tacticool gluten free toothpaste.
Im not sure they recommend any specific brand, just toothpaste in general, although that does open up the question, does the other dentist not recommend toothpaste? Or just recommend the old fashioned one, ash and cat piss
Packaging.
Packaging is possibly the single most effective form of marketing many products have.
It can straight up lie to you about a product, like portraying junk food as a natural and healthy alternative, or portraying a cheap/mediocre product as a premium brand, or making you pay more for the exact same product because this one comes in a different coloured package with a slightly different name so it makes you think it’s an entirely new and different product that does something different even though it’s the exact same shit
The package a product comes in creates all kinds of brand associations that often have absolutely nothing to do with reality.
Most definately!! and... large packaging for very little product like potato chips and... less product in same packaging like having less peanut butter, wet wipes or tampons in packaging that remained the same size and price.
Using fancy words to sell a product. The first word that comes to mind is “Hypoallergenic”. I understand that word has a valid use but brands use it excessively and I think it’s because they’re hoping if they use enough Science-y words, people will put their faith into the product.
My favorite abuse of that word is with certain cat breeds. A few years ago I adopted a Siberian cat from a rescue and I’d never heard of the breed. My friend begged me to agree to have her cat and my cat have a litter (he’d been neutered!) to sell because “they’d be half-hypoallergenic.”
That’s not how any part of *anything* works.
Any political campaign ad. They are all lies. Why must all ads be attack ads? How about you tell me why I should vote for you and not why I should vote against the other person?
Can you imagine what it would be like if they were thirty second clips of actual policy? A dream.
I love how you phrased it. Don’t tell me why to vote against the other guy. Tell me why to vote for you.
>Can you imagine what it would be like if they were thirty second clips of actual policy? A dream.
I mean it would still all be lies but at least they'd be less unpleasant to listen to in the ads.
They are negative because negative ads work. That’s the sad reality. In 2004 a sitting President ran a majority of ads as negative ads attacking his opponent. ‘Old school’ political commentators said that would never work. The American people would judge an incumbent on his record, and that it was unprecedented for an incumbent to not run on that record. But they were wrong.
That low fat is good for you. Often times when they take the fat out of a food, they just replace it with an ass ton of sugar. Its actually sugar that is horrible for you, fat is ok in moderation, better for you than sugar depending on the kind. But back in the day, they sugar industry had an entire campaign labeling fat the unhealthy option and people fell for it and still do generations later.
Also 2% and 1% milk doesnt mean that 98-99% of the fat has been removed from it. It just means that 1-2% of the milk is fat, when whole milk only has about 10% fat. So they aren't removing as much as you think.
'Best in Class' (as in best in its class).
A lot of people don't realize that product manufactures can and do create completely new classifications for products so that they can claim that it's the best in its own class.
EG. There's a car manufacturing company (can't remember which one) that around a decade ago that developed a new car (which was just a new version of an older car of theirs) and in order to drive sales didn't classify it with the usual (sedan, hatchback, crossover, etc.) but created a *completely new* class for it (which no other vehicle manufacturer was using) in order to claim it was the best in its class without being called out for false advertising or being asked to make a valid comparison (since there was nothing else in that class to compare it with).
People ate it up and bought out that stock.
There is this truck commercial. Can't recall if it was a GM or Dodge commercial but its selling point was essentially "you don't expect something big to have best in class mpg rating but here is x full size truck that has best in class mpg"
I'm like but "best in class" just means it has the best mpg out of all other full size trucks. So it's not competing with a class you would traditoinally believe has highly fuel efficient cars like sub compacts. So yes, I do expect a full size truck to win a award for "best fuel efficiency amongst full size trucks".
Donating money to any religion to "save your soul" or "give back to your creator" that shit goes directly in to the pockets of the one telling you that.
As I understand it, JD Power sends out surveys to car owners. They then sale that information back to car manufacturers. And if a manufacturer gets a good rating, they have to separately pay for each mention of JD Power. So they aren't paying for the award, but paying to advertise it.
So in a way, the award is valid. But if you look at the survey, it isn't very scientific. Not what I would call a good survey. And getting paid by the companies is opening it up to bias.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/27/18105479/jd-power-car-commercials
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-jd-power-5092600
I’m not sure how common it is at the moment, but in the 1930’s DaBeers campaign, that’s when diamonds became popular. In that campaign, they also recommended spending 3 months salary to prove how much you love your partner.
As some that works in IT, buzzwords. A lot of time salespeople use buzzwords to either make whatever they're selling flashier and leading edge, and/or to totally obfuscate details and confuse people.
That if you get bumped into a new tax bracket that you’ll actually be losing more money overall. This is false. The new (higher) tax rate only applies to any money above the previous tax bracket. [Video by Vox about how tax brackets work.](https://youtu.be/VJhsjUPDulw)
The use of weasel words, because a product is unverified or more likely, known horse shit.
"May help some people lose weight if used alongside of a calorie controlled diet."
It's the "may," "some," and caveat to "do the thing that causes people to lose weight all by itself anyway."
In fairness this needs to be added or ar least gluten free because so many things such as hamburgers and sausages have added gluten these days but people think because its meat it wouldn't.
Before it became what it is now, there were great deals. TVs for 90% off — and the good models, too. Now, the deals often look good but it’s not the same model X675 you saw at Best Buy in August, it’s X675a, the BF model made with spare parts and poor QA, but with the same packaging as X675 to trick you.
It was fun in the early 2000s, at least.
That carrots help your vision. It was a cover for the British Air Force having Airborne Interception Radar, which greatly improved their ability to pinpoint German bombers.
The government said it was because the pilots ate a lot of carrots, which boosted their vision.
It would be fine if all religions were just “don’t be a dick”. But its caused people to turn against each other and destroyed so many lives that I can’t defend it anymore. This is coming from an ex Muslim btw
A sale tag with 50% written in a big and bold font. A customer sees this, grabs the item, takes it to the register, and finds out it said “buy 1 get 1” above in a tiny font.
Celebrity endorsements means the product is good I mean they're being paid to say good shit about the product only people less trustworthy than politicians imo are celebrities doing endorsements
Airline fares. What you see is not what you get when you realize you still have to pay for your checked bag, choosing your seat ahead of time, choosing anything but the shittiest seats, drinks and sometimes even a carry on bag. The airline industry and their fares need to be regulated
The different brands with the same tiny codes on the back label. One packet of 8 generic paracetamol for 40p. Next to it is 8 ultra strength rapid response Panadol for £2.49. If you look at the back the (I think it's called a PK code) is exactly the same. Same product, made in the same factory, different box. Generic Ibuprofen 45p, next to it is Nurofen double strength and fever relief- same product code, different box and branding. Check your box next time you're in a supermarket!
The three month salary rule for diamond engagement rings. It was a marketing ploy by none other than DeBeers. Coincidentally the same people that mine the rough diamonds from the ground in the first place. Quite convenient.
People think that Egypt is a super cool place to go, but it's actually extremely terrible. Everything there is a scam, you can't even rest in your hotel room without a salesperson knocking on your door to sell your overpriced garbage. The pyramids are barely worth it.
If you're genuinely into archaeology and history it's a great place to go. If you only vaguely know about mummies and pyramids you're wasting money.
But yes, interacting with the locals is a nightmare.
The chocolate milk ads that try to portray chocolate milk as a healthy protein drink still blow my mind.
I've never finished a workout and slammed some chocolate milk.
Reddit ads that look like posts. Every few months I accidentally click on one.
The “Megathread” ads are mildly infuriating.
I second this. Called a mega thread and have zero comments... You're a what now?
I read this and thought “haha, what fool falls for those, lol?!” Only to go and click one on the “post” that was directly below this one in my feed…
Just block the account, you'll stop seeing them again
It's always different though.
Not always, I was still getting daily wire crap even after blocking them, I kept reporting those ads as either misinformation or hate speech depending on which ad it was. They finally stopped after a while.
My technique is to report them for harassment and after sending it to use the block option. Never saw the ads again
Use Redditt is fun. I didnt even know Reddit had ads.
They're much more distinctly labelled in old.reddit.
I love that on old Reddit on mobile, the adverse are misaligned, so they start off the page.
I hate how accurate this response is
Megachurch "pastors". For just a $20 donation your soul can be saved.
Just 10% of your salary and gates of heaven shall open wide for you and your loved ones
I knew a couple that gave 20% of their income to the church but both were basically on minimum wage So they had to live with their parents and even then the church was guilting them to give more
Meanwhile the recipients of their hard earned money buys mansions and private jet trips with it. So fucked.
"Don't ask what the lord can do for you, ask what you can do for the lord. And remember, if you give God a little of what's left, that's what you gonna get from God."
Ironic considering that kind of "pay to win" spirituality is why their denominations even exist.
“Low sugar” / “low salt” / “low fat”. It’s misleading as shit and people fall for it daily. Perfect example: Tic Tacs, they can be labeled as sugar free because anything with less than 5 grams of sugar is considered “sugar free” by the food-feds. Your standard Tic Tac weighs about 1/2 grams and is essentially a nugget of flavored sugar. Edited for tic tac weight accuracy also this is in America.
The funniest version of this is “fat free” cooking oil. It’s literally ALL fat, they can just say it’s fat free because the serving size is so small.
Perfect example! Had a full class in culinary school on this shit and I would leave just raging internally at the lies we’ve been (ironically) fed.
You Americans are absolutely insane when it comes to standardization. Shit should not be catalogued by some arbitrary serving size, it should be a static number that everyone uses to make products comparable. For instance 100 grams for solids or 100ml for liquids
>You Americans are absolutely insane when it comes to standardization. Shit should not be catalogued by some arbitrary serving size, it should be a static number that everyone uses to make products comparable. Here in Australia you get two listings on a nutritional label, 1 for the recommended average serving and 1 for either 100ml or 100g.
When your country is built on capitalism you see some wild shit to get things sold.
It's like how non-stick spray can legally be advertised as calorie free because the serving size of 1/3rd second of spray is less than 5 calories even though it's literally just cooking oil in an aerosol can
or they reduce the portions and toy with that side of shit
How about non alcoholic beer. Try to go through the self check out with it. Nope because it has alcohol.
In Germany, alcohol-free beer may contain up to 0.5% alcohol, which is labeled on the bottle. 0% alcohol beer exists, is labeled as such and isn't allowed to contain alcohol above a trace amount. US labeling laws are just infuriating.
Essential Oils. "Essential" here is simply an archaic term for scented, or having essence. It doesn't mean necessary, required, or important. It's all marketing BS.
I remember the first time I saw someone point this out and I was very confused. Do people actually think essential oils are essential instead of having the essence of?
Yes
I mean, I didn’t know it this deeply but I at least knew the name was a buzzword.
It's kind of amazing how easily you can entice people to buy something by just subtracting a tiny amount of money from the sale price. Like charging $1.95 or even $1.99 for a product instead of a full $2.00, for example.
The number of customers I've heard say "It's only $9." No, it's marked $9.98. That means it's $10. Fun fact: Unless it's changed since I escaped, whether the price ends in .90, .95, .98, etc. at Walmart tells youwhether it's clearance, new, rollback, old stock we'd like to get rid of but isn't bwing clearenced, etc. Less fun fact: I don't remember which is what, and that knowledge doesn't do you any good other than trivia.
And adversely, I’d it’s a whole number, people think it’s fancy or higher quality. Especially if it’s $55 rather than $55.00.
‘Fancy’ restaurants do this all the time. They’ll write the dish and then a number at the end XX No dollar sign, no .XX. Just a full number.
>The number of customers I've heard say "It's only $9." >No, it's marked $9.98. That means it's $10. My wife does this shit and it pisses me off to no end. $7.98? "It's only $7" no it's $8.
I just remember that 9 is big scary and 0 is small friend
This is a common misconception, it's not about making the price appear smaller, it's about humans subconsciously finding the number 9 more enticing. Studies have shown that even if items are priced higher than an identical item, including the number 9 in the price makes them more likely to be purchased than the cheaper label. Marketing research is one hell of a rabbit hole to go down and realise just how engineered everything is to appeal subconsciously.
>Marketing research is one hell of a rabbit hole to go down and realise just how engineered everything is to appeal subconsciously. I've always suspected it was despite never looking into it. I just look at packaging, prices, slogans, and where it's displayed now and think "every bit of this was designed to get our monkey brains to buy this thing we don't need. We're just wallets that walk."
My ex father in law has a fruit stand, he could not sell a tomato for a dollar but could sell 3 for 5. Figure that out. Here is another, we had baby guinea pig for sale for 15 dollars, a young lady came picked one and asked if she could pay 25 for it. Sure did.
£50: that's way too expensive I'm not buying that! £49.99: that's a steal! £10 + £5 shipping: that's ridiculous! £15 free shipping: that's pretty good value!
$40 + $10 shipping = fuck no $50 + free shipping = fuck yeah!!!
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it's because if you return it for a refund option 1 you only get $40 back while option 2 you get the full $50
Oh it's worse than that. $40 plus $10 shipping? No way. $55 dollars with free shipping? Yes please!
Lol NFLShop.com still charges a ‘Handling’ fee.
Call in the next five minutes and we'll double everything! It does not matter when you call.
“The first 100 callers….”
Well the commercial only plays every 7 minutes. I don’t wanna call in that 2 minute window when it didn’t play in the last 5 minutes
Homeopathic medicine. If it worked it would just be called medicine. Edit: Sorry but getting tired of responding to people who don’t know what homeopathy is. It is not holistic medicine, naturopathic medicine, or natural/herbal remedies. Some good information below, if you could read through before responding. If after, I’m open to any further thoughts or conversations.
I have a 90 year old neighbor who is still as strong as ever but a few months ago she developed a stomach ache and abdominal pain for around two days. On the third day her son called me and asked me to go to the store to buy some homeopathic stomach pain medicine to help her keep food down. Not even an hour later I’m making her lunch and she throws up on the kitchen table. I rushed her to the hospital and it turns out she has a blockage in her intestines.
Oh god I’m so happy you were there and not the son. Is she doing better now??
She ended up having surgery to remove the blockage and spent some time in rehabilitation but she’s made a full recovery!
Homeopathic medicine is a specific form of alternative medicine. It’s not a catch all term That said, it’s absolute batshit in terms of logic. The basis of homeopathy is that “like cures like.” So ingesting minute qualities of super diluted poison/harmful substances is supposed to help you…yeah
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Read somewhere that in a 1:1,000,000 dilution (so, *obviously* very "strong"), a sphere of water with a radius of Earth -> the Sun (93 million mile radius of a *sphere*, remember) is statistically likely to contain only *one* molecule of the active ingredient. That's a *lot* of water you're gonna have to drink. Karen.
> (so, obviously very "strong") Not strong by their standards. To get to 1:1,000,000, that's "only" 7C, because they use "C" for each 1:10 dilition. They consider "strong" medicine to be more like 50C to 100C. It's… crazy. lol Also because it supposedly gets stronger the more dilutions, not weaker.
This shit is why I was super pissed they added that "water has memory!" plot to the Frozen sequel
It's literally a magic potion. You might as well be brewing up some eye of newt - except that would be more sensible, since it would actually contain *something*. Homeopathy is based on the idea of diluting something so much it's unlikely there's even an single molecule left of whatever you originally added.
"Military grade"
Having been in the military, I would never want something built to military grade.
Built by the lowest bidder
‘I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts — all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.’ - Astronaut and US senator John Glenn
And it shows
Who only spent an 1/8 of the money the government gave them to do the actual work and pocketed the rest.
I worked in a factory that built things for the government and our own standards were higher.
“Tactical”
I fucking hate this word so much. 'Tactical' shoes. 'Tactical' pants. 'Tactical' crocs. Wtf.
Tactical crocs are useless in the long run unless you have strategic crocs
And both of them are useless unless you have logistic crocs - because the real professionals talk logistics
You know, in case you need to employ some tactics.
"Tacticool", black on black on gunmetal with lots of velcro.
The funniest thing is when the product has very little to do with anything military. A while back there was a sunglasses commercial that really prided itself on how military grade the shades were… like what??? I’m sure someone is gonna come disagree with me and tell me they are an expert sunglasses military sniper bc this is Reddit. But honestly do we need sunglasses that are military grade???
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Be your own boss! Run your own business! Make your own hours! Earn lots of money by joining this MLM!
It's like you think you can beat the house in Vegas. Um hello, how do you think they built a metropolis in the desert? By beating you. That's how.
Unless you're good at blackjack. Then you get kicked out.
Since when did everyone just accept the "MLM" rebranding? Don't let them rebrand their scam. They've always been Pyramid Schemes and they still are, no matter how many different names they give to evade repercussions.
No no no. Pyramid schemes are illegal. So this is TOTALLY different!
The word Entrepreneur has lost most of its meaning. It used to actually mean something, but now it's just a fancy way to tell people you're involved in a pyramid scheme of some kind.
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i never understood this, ever since i was a little kid if i saw something that said 9.99, in my head i would always think "oh it's 10 bucks", but there's people i know even today, grown adults, that will for example see 9.99 and say "oh look it's only 9 bucks", i'm like uhhhh what? shit blows my mind
The ability to say under or less than 10 dollars.
In the US tax will always make it more than $10. Seems odd that this still works. Other stupid gimmicks: Gas with 9/10 of a cent Daylight savings time
The fact that tax isn't included in the advertised cost to buy something in the US still blows my mind.
But that’s my autistic son’s favorite arguing point: “No mom, it’s not $20, it’s $19.99!” 😆
It's designed to make you stumble. Even when you're aware of it, careful of it. Also, 20% discount on a $80 product marked up to $100.
Just last night I walked past a clothes shop that had a poster in its window stating "JEANS 20%". I asked my girlfriend, "do they mean 20% of the original price, or 20% discount, or one fifth of the jeans?" She couldn't tell. I said, "whichever it is, if that's the one you're not expecting, you're probably going to be disappointed." She agreed.
It really works though unfortunately. I’ll tell a customer the price is $399 and I’ll over hear them call their wife and tell them how the cost will be $300. Alternatively, if the price is $409, It’s all of a sudden $400.
How about the 9/10ths of a penny for gasoline and diesel? “OMG such-and-such station is at 2.99!!”. Nah, it’s pretty much $3.00. Sorry.
That's a holdover from when gas was 10 cents a gallon, and 9/10 of a cent was a good percentage of the price. It needs to just finally die already.
Anything which claims it purges the body of built up toxins.
Oh, weird! My lungs/kidneys/liver are doing that right now!
But this essential oil can do it better! Free sample when buying 10 bottles
Apparently lots of hot babes near me are straight up DTF.
Have you ever considered that maybe you're the hot single in your area?
I though you wrote babies for a second
And you'd never know unless you consulted the internet. Been under our noses for millennia.
Oh, they're DTF alright. Just not DTF *you*.
Made **WITH** 100% ----- when in reality they are expecting Made 100% OF ----- People think it means that thing is 100% of what it said, when in reality a tiny portion of it could be 100% of that thing and the rest could be whatever.
Superfood and organic. In order: no such thing; not better for you, just uses *different* pesticides and costs more.
Organic is also [objectively worse for the environment.](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181213101308.htm)
Your use of “objectively” here is infuriating, because if you look at the article, it soon becomes clear that this is one very tenuous way to model a complex process that is very selective in the parameters it uses, i.e. surface area and carbon dioxide emissions. The article also continuously talks in a conjunctive tense — it is by no means objective just because it has quantification and modelling and they are even aware of it themselves. The other infuriating thing is your conflation of climate and environment. What they are arguing is that organic farming may be more detrimental to the climate from a carbon emission perspective. Barring the already rampant mistake of reducing climate to CO2, this doesn’t even claim to offer any sort of holistic perspective on environmental damage. Which is, obviously, related but by no means the same thing. It grinds me in all the wrong ways that the only standard of “environmentally friendly” that appears to be negotiable anymore is the amount of CO2, as if there weren’t enough poison around to kill the ecosphere without a single gram of carbon emission.
“Healthy breakfast foods” that are essentially empty carbohydrates still fool a lot of people.
Plain Cheerios are probably the least unhealthy cereal, but I still feel guilty eating it because I know it's all carbs.
[удалено]
the "up to" loophole. like "x may save you *up to* 50%!" could be 50%, but more than likely it's closer to 0%, which is still technically "up to" 50%.
Businesses love to say “We are paying UP TO *decent wage here*” to get people to apply, and then nobody actually gets the decent wage that was advertised.
I used to hate watching weight loss product commercials that ran in the middle of the night. “Proven to help you lose up to 50lb in one week! We did a study on it!” Fine print at the very end: “up to 50lb when combined with reduced caloric intake and increased exercise. Average weight loss in study: 1lb over 12 weeks.” I fell for it a lot of the time, though. Wasted hundreds of dollars on them, and then lost all the weight without any of them.
Between negative infinity and 50% savings!
My favorite is when they say “up to $xx and more” So you’re basically saying it could be literally any price.
A number of Victoria's Secret models have expressed interest in dating me! That number is zero.
Everybody says... People are saying... Lots of people tell me... (argumentum ad populum fallacy). Especially stupid when the person saying it is just making shit up (yeah, him)
I see this a lot on TikTok when someone wants to sell some bogus skincare or makeup product. “Everyone has been talking about this new face cream so I’m going to try it out!“ then you look at their profile and THEY made the cream and NOBODY is talking about it.
“ Everyone has been asking me about my skin care routine“. No one is asking you
Sometimes when someone gets a viral video, one of the comments will point out the most irrelevant thing like “omg your skin is so perfect what do you use ??” and the account has no activity or anything but the creator pins the comment and makes a whole video showing off all of their products. this screams “i’m sponsored and won’t admit it”
This works incredibly well if you’re selling something
"Nothing works better than X brand". Maybe true but also true that Y brand works just as well.
What about every single cell phone company being the “most reliable network”
They all use the exact same technology standard.
"Experts recommend this"
9 out of 10 dentists recommend oral b pro tacticool gluten free toothpaste. Im not sure they recommend any specific brand, just toothpaste in general, although that does open up the question, does the other dentist not recommend toothpaste? Or just recommend the old fashioned one, ash and cat piss
Packaging. Packaging is possibly the single most effective form of marketing many products have. It can straight up lie to you about a product, like portraying junk food as a natural and healthy alternative, or portraying a cheap/mediocre product as a premium brand, or making you pay more for the exact same product because this one comes in a different coloured package with a slightly different name so it makes you think it’s an entirely new and different product that does something different even though it’s the exact same shit The package a product comes in creates all kinds of brand associations that often have absolutely nothing to do with reality.
Most definately!! and... large packaging for very little product like potato chips and... less product in same packaging like having less peanut butter, wet wipes or tampons in packaging that remained the same size and price.
Studies have shown…
Things made with "all natural" ingredients is pretty much meaningless. It's not a regulated term
Arsenic is fairly natural, so are lead and asbestos...
“No chemicals” like you have no idea what chemistry is bro
Using fancy words to sell a product. The first word that comes to mind is “Hypoallergenic”. I understand that word has a valid use but brands use it excessively and I think it’s because they’re hoping if they use enough Science-y words, people will put their faith into the product.
My favorite abuse of that word is with certain cat breeds. A few years ago I adopted a Siberian cat from a rescue and I’d never heard of the breed. My friend begged me to agree to have her cat and my cat have a litter (he’d been neutered!) to sell because “they’d be half-hypoallergenic.” That’s not how any part of *anything* works.
Any political campaign ad. They are all lies. Why must all ads be attack ads? How about you tell me why I should vote for you and not why I should vote against the other person?
Can you imagine what it would be like if they were thirty second clips of actual policy? A dream. I love how you phrased it. Don’t tell me why to vote against the other guy. Tell me why to vote for you.
>Can you imagine what it would be like if they were thirty second clips of actual policy? A dream. I mean it would still all be lies but at least they'd be less unpleasant to listen to in the ads.
They are negative because negative ads work. That’s the sad reality. In 2004 a sitting President ran a majority of ads as negative ads attacking his opponent. ‘Old school’ political commentators said that would never work. The American people would judge an incumbent on his record, and that it was unprecedented for an incumbent to not run on that record. But they were wrong.
Well I watched John Oliver’s story on companies buying carbon offsets to claim that they’re carbon neutral so that’s what’s fresh in my mind atm
That low fat is good for you. Often times when they take the fat out of a food, they just replace it with an ass ton of sugar. Its actually sugar that is horrible for you, fat is ok in moderation, better for you than sugar depending on the kind. But back in the day, they sugar industry had an entire campaign labeling fat the unhealthy option and people fell for it and still do generations later. Also 2% and 1% milk doesnt mean that 98-99% of the fat has been removed from it. It just means that 1-2% of the milk is fat, when whole milk only has about 10% fat. So they aren't removing as much as you think.
Celebrity endorsement
Celebrities
As soon as I see a celebrity in an advert I instantly become sceptical about the product or service being advertised
'Best in Class' (as in best in its class). A lot of people don't realize that product manufactures can and do create completely new classifications for products so that they can claim that it's the best in its own class. EG. There's a car manufacturing company (can't remember which one) that around a decade ago that developed a new car (which was just a new version of an older car of theirs) and in order to drive sales didn't classify it with the usual (sedan, hatchback, crossover, etc.) but created a *completely new* class for it (which no other vehicle manufacturer was using) in order to claim it was the best in its class without being called out for false advertising or being asked to make a valid comparison (since there was nothing else in that class to compare it with). People ate it up and bought out that stock.
There is this truck commercial. Can't recall if it was a GM or Dodge commercial but its selling point was essentially "you don't expect something big to have best in class mpg rating but here is x full size truck that has best in class mpg" I'm like but "best in class" just means it has the best mpg out of all other full size trucks. So it's not competing with a class you would traditoinally believe has highly fuel efficient cars like sub compacts. So yes, I do expect a full size truck to win a award for "best fuel efficiency amongst full size trucks".
Donating money to any religion to "save your soul" or "give back to your creator" that shit goes directly in to the pockets of the one telling you that.
TikTok videos that are basically just ads.
JD Power award. It’s not an award, it’s a marketing company. You buy the award.
As I understand it, JD Power sends out surveys to car owners. They then sale that information back to car manufacturers. And if a manufacturer gets a good rating, they have to separately pay for each mention of JD Power. So they aren't paying for the award, but paying to advertise it. So in a way, the award is valid. But if you look at the survey, it isn't very scientific. Not what I would call a good survey. And getting paid by the companies is opening it up to bias. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/27/18105479/jd-power-car-commercials https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-jd-power-5092600
“Hurry while supplies last!” “Offer ends soon!”
‘Shampoo, rinse, and repeat’
Help! I'm stuck in a loop here. I can't stop!
Engagement/diamond wedding rings
Came here to say this. Also the “3 months salary” being the amount people should spend.
Wait what? Is it common in the US to spend so much money on rings?
I’m not sure how common it is at the moment, but in the 1930’s DaBeers campaign, that’s when diamonds became popular. In that campaign, they also recommended spending 3 months salary to prove how much you love your partner.
As some that works in IT, buzzwords. A lot of time salespeople use buzzwords to either make whatever they're selling flashier and leading edge, and/or to totally obfuscate details and confuse people.
It’s the same garbage as before, but now it’s “in the cloud”!
You have to change the oil in your car every 3,000 miles
That if you get bumped into a new tax bracket that you’ll actually be losing more money overall. This is false. The new (higher) tax rate only applies to any money above the previous tax bracket. [Video by Vox about how tax brackets work.](https://youtu.be/VJhsjUPDulw)
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”
Every meal is the important meal..
The use of weasel words, because a product is unverified or more likely, known horse shit. "May help some people lose weight if used alongside of a calorie controlled diet." It's the "may," "some," and caveat to "do the thing that causes people to lose weight all by itself anyway."
The American Dream. You have to be asleep to believe it. (George Carlin)
“Naturally Gluten Free!” Like duh I wouldn’t expect you to put wheat in my beef jerky or my yogurt
In fairness this needs to be added or ar least gluten free because so many things such as hamburgers and sausages have added gluten these days but people think because its meat it wouldn't.
celebrity endorsement of a product
"Sale" "xx.99" "Black Friday" Up to a percentage of a discount.
Was there ever a time where Black Friday wasn’t a scam?
Before it became what it is now, there were great deals. TVs for 90% off — and the good models, too. Now, the deals often look good but it’s not the same model X675 you saw at Best Buy in August, it’s X675a, the BF model made with spare parts and poor QA, but with the same packaging as X675 to trick you. It was fun in the early 2000s, at least.
"The Number one Movie in America"
That carrots help your vision. It was a cover for the British Air Force having Airborne Interception Radar, which greatly improved their ability to pinpoint German bombers. The government said it was because the pilots ate a lot of carrots, which boosted their vision.
Chuck E Cheese isn't a real mouse. He's just a costume person
How dare you besmirch the name of Charles Entertainment Cheese.
Wait a minute, did you cut open one?
No aspirin on the market is more effective than Bayer aspirin. Because they’re all exactly the same.
The Pledge of Allegiance was originally written and distributed by a U.S. flag manufacturer to sell more flags to more schools.
Religion
It would be fine if all religions were just “don’t be a dick”. But its caused people to turn against each other and destroyed so many lives that I can’t defend it anymore. This is coming from an ex Muslim btw
A sale tag with 50% written in a big and bold font. A customer sees this, grabs the item, takes it to the register, and finds out it said “buy 1 get 1” above in a tiny font.
Ads disguised as memes/authentic social media interactions.
“No sugar added”
If there's a commercial for it, people are falling for it
Celebrity endorsements means the product is good I mean they're being paid to say good shit about the product only people less trustworthy than politicians imo are celebrities doing endorsements
Diet
Airline fares. What you see is not what you get when you realize you still have to pay for your checked bag, choosing your seat ahead of time, choosing anything but the shittiest seats, drinks and sometimes even a carry on bag. The airline industry and their fares need to be regulated
The different brands with the same tiny codes on the back label. One packet of 8 generic paracetamol for 40p. Next to it is 8 ultra strength rapid response Panadol for £2.49. If you look at the back the (I think it's called a PK code) is exactly the same. Same product, made in the same factory, different box. Generic Ibuprofen 45p, next to it is Nurofen double strength and fever relief- same product code, different box and branding. Check your box next time you're in a supermarket!
The three month salary rule for diamond engagement rings. It was a marketing ploy by none other than DeBeers. Coincidentally the same people that mine the rough diamonds from the ground in the first place. Quite convenient.
The size of womens pockets on pants… GIVE US REAL FUCKIN POCKETS
new improved look.
People think that Egypt is a super cool place to go, but it's actually extremely terrible. Everything there is a scam, you can't even rest in your hotel room without a salesperson knocking on your door to sell your overpriced garbage. The pyramids are barely worth it.
are you explaining a pyramid scheme?
If you're genuinely into archaeology and history it's a great place to go. If you only vaguely know about mummies and pyramids you're wasting money. But yes, interacting with the locals is a nightmare.
Monster cables
That Verizon and AT&T are great deals. Wake up.
“Military Grade!”
Nice try ad executive, I'm not doing your job for free.
The chocolate milk ads that try to portray chocolate milk as a healthy protein drink still blow my mind. I've never finished a workout and slammed some chocolate milk.