Reading through a fellow classmates Tatiana Mawani‘s blog post about Nutella faking its health content in its commercials triggered my memory of a vaguely discussed topic when this news had been exposed; I decided to read further on the topic, and read more articles that confirmed and supported Tatiana’s post (Here and here). This provoked my interest in finding out what other lies advertising agencies and companies have fed consumers through their various marketing campaigns and schemes, only to find out the honest truth – this wasn’t an irregular occurrence.

Sketcher’s shoes doesn’t help people who wear them lose weight, Classmates.com cannot actually help you find your classmates, L’oreal face cream doesn’t help “facelift” (or Lancome or Olay for that matter), Gas isn’t “cleaner” if it’s crystal clear, Hoover’s “free trips to america” were free but non-existent, Rice Krispies doesn’t protect children from immunity, Listerine is not equivalent to floss, fast food actually doesn’t look like what it does on advertisements (shocking, right?), or the older campaigns that states cigarettes have great health benefits; the list goes on, and on, and on.

It may be common knowledge for people to only take advertisements with a grain of salt, and that advertising agencies aren’t the most honest people in the world. However, to this day,  it’s still a common occurrence for consumers and target audiences to fall for the many subtle and seemingly insignificant “facts” planted in advertisements. We are constantly reminded not to believe everything an ad says. Is this what companies must do in order to attract attention –  to brand its products with false, pleasing facts and benefits in order to lure consumers into buying the good or service? Ultimately, it’s a scary thought to realize; if we can’t really trust the millions of advertisements we are faced with each day, what ARE we supposed to trust?