False Advertising

Advertising by definition is marketing meant to persuade or manipulate an audience but the things advertisers get away with seems criminal... but it's perfectly legal! Here are FOUR big lies advertising tells us daily:

1. Cell phone coverage is bullcrap. Everybody from Sprint to AT&T shows off big coverage maps that make it SEEM like you'll have cell service coast to coast. Well, the problem is that they measure this by where calls are dropped and where they aren't. Here's the problem, ANYTHING can cause a dropped call from trees and buildings to electrical interference. The companies use that flexibility to ASSUME the problem isn't them and count areas as "covered" that are actually dead zones.

2. Food serving sizes are a giant mystery. Companies are constantly changing sizes of what a serving is as well as the package it comes in and many times it makes no sense. For example, Healthy Choice makes a single serving soup THAT HAS 2 SERVINGS PER CONTAINER! So you either overeat or throw away half of the soup. They aren't the only ones guilty of this, just an example.

3. Not all "health benefits" are real. Lately it seems like 2 of the healthiest things to are bee pollen and acai berries for their magical health benefits. But what are those benefits? Anybody? I'll tell you... NOTHING! Neither one has any real benefit but advertising has convinced us they do. Wrigley tried this with Eclipse Gum saying it made your mouth healthier but they got SUED by competitors because it's actually the extra saliva chewing creates that makes you mouth healthier, not the gum itself.

4. Food that SOUNDS healthy, probably isn't. Instead of pointing out what the food is made of, they point out the ONE bad thing the food doesn't have. Like Krispy Kreme saying their donuts have 0% trans fat. Really? That's the bad kind so they must be good! Well, they still have a gallon of sugar and tons of carbs in them. Delicious, but not healthy.

Basically I'm just saying, don't believe the hype. When a commercial goes off and you suddenly crave what you just saw, they just won. Try to read between the lines and question the "facts" that advertising throws your way.

Original story from Cracked.com