Deceptive Tactics Used in Advertising

It's no secret that advertising is a dirty business. When I was in college, a professor told us a story about a company having trouble selling a large supply of canned white salmon. Although there was nothing wrong with the fish nutritionally, people would open the cans, see white salmon and say yuck! In desperation, the company turned to an advertising specialist who flat out told them he could sell the product but there would be a fine. He designed a label that said "White Salmon - Guaranteed Not to Turn Red in the Can".

While most people would not be as blatantly deceptive as this, truth be told, the Internet is like the wild, wild, west of questionable practices. A perfect example would be an online store that claims "free shipping" but then hits you with a handling fee at checkout. Likewise, claiming a house has three bedrooms in an online listing but it's really two and someone stuck a bed in the dining room is to say the least, questionable. Legally speaking, a bedroom usually requires a doorway, window and closet. Even if the dining room can serve dual purposes and satisfy the legal requirements, listing it twice as if it were two separate spaces is deceptive and in my opinion, false advertising.

Despite underhanded tricks, people will often disregard these "mistakes" if they can be convinced the product still has enough merit to make up for the inaccurate labeling. Unfortunately, this encourages bad behavior that should not be rewarded. It also puts good causes like the AbilityOne program at a significant disadvantage because it is hard to compete against a pitch that cures all and throws in a free tank of gas.