Bullsh*t in Adverts

[Notters]

I've been reading a quite interesting thread on the QI website:

QI Talk Forum | View topic - Advertising - Do we really take note?

What inaccuracies most annoy you in TV ads?

Have to agree with the comments on the soap dispenser that you don't have to touch. What is the point?!

 

[Kumquat]

The one that makes me laugh the most is the "most dentists use Colgate" one. It's the best selling toothpaste because it's the best known brand. So it's not f***ing surprising that that includes dentists!

I also remember working in a pub in the early 90s when Carling Black Label were peddling the "best selling lager in England" shit as well. Given that Bass then owned more pubs than anybody else and their main lager was Carling Black Label, not really a surprise is it?

So presumably most people in the 90s were drinking carling black label and washing it away with colgate because both had cornered the market not because either were better than other products.

 

[severnside gull]

The one that makes me really angry is the toothpaste with "pro argen formula". - I am absolutely convinced there is no such bloody thing and it is just an advertising agency con. Years ago Signal toothpaste ran the same sort of con implying there was something in the stripes that was good for your teeth when all that was in it was food colouring.

 

[BHAFC_Pandapops]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRx0-y3YJL4

The key to feeling great is looking great, and the way to look great is to have great hair! That's Great!!

Listen to the small talk at the end. Might cause Heart Palpitations, but your hair will be great!

 

[GYM]

I've been reading a quite interesting thread on the QI website:

QI Talk Forum | View topic - Advertising - Do we really take note?

What inaccuracies most annoy you in TV ads?

Have to agree with the comments on the soap dispenser that you don't have to touch. What is the point?!

I have to agree with the soap dispenser. Why do you need to keep the germs off the dispenser when you are then washing your hands.

Its the tap that needs to be motion sensitive to avoid touching and spreading germs before and after washing!!!

 

[pasty]

The one that makes me really angry is the toothpaste with "pro argen formula". - I am absolutely convinced there is no such bloody thing and it is just an advertising agency con.

Ditto: Bifidus digestivum WTF

 

[Notters]

OMEGA 3 oils... Are apparently not proven to have any benefits.

No evidence oily fish have health benefits, study finds - Health News - Health Families - The Independent

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

i think harvester offer "unlimited salad" in their adverts

right, so i can just sit in your restaurant FOREVER and eat INFINITE amounts of salad then can i?

 

[KVLT]

Can't remember what it's for exactly, but there's an ad for face cream that is said to contain "Ginger captured in its purest form!" - That will be ginger then!

But surely the winner must be L'Oreal Wrinkle De-Crease with the active ingredient Boswellox!

Utter Boswellox!

 

[Heffle Gull]

The current advert for some sort of eye make up..

Illegal lengths mascara.

Will apparently make you eye lashes so long they are illegal.

Really

Which act of Parliament covers this then?

 

[Mr Smggles]

The so-called Australian Lager, Fosters, which is actually brewed in the UK.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

I love the bullshitty science bits in adverts. Am I right in thinking there is no actual benefit in hair products having provitamins in them?

 

[father_and_son]

LV= (aka Liverpool Victoria) offering 90% No Claims Discount on their car insurance.

This is a complete con. LV= don't want business for people with zero no claims bonus and so they deliberately force the price for these customers up. Therefore for the customers they do want, the discount appears bigger then it would if they weren't scr*wing another segment of the market.

From working in pricing in this market I can tell you that anyone who offers more than 50% discount is scr*wing somebody else quite badly.

 

[father_and_son]

I love the bullshitty science bits in adverts. Am I right in thinking there is no actual benefit in hair products having provitamins in them?

Hair is dead. You can coat them with stuff that makes it look like, but you can't "nurish" it!

 

[Manx Shearwater]

I love the bullshitty science bits in adverts. Am I right in thinking there is no actual benefit in hair products having provitamins in them?

Ben Goldacre covers a lot of this in his Bad Science book.

In moisturising cream there are a couple of ingredients which make it moisturise. These ingredients are cheap. The OTHER ingredients, which make it expensive, have no moisturising effect at all. They're just scientific crap to make you think you're buying something exclusive and brilliant.

This enables them to state that their product DOES work, but its only the cheap ingredients which are making it work. You may as well buy Vaseline Intensive Care cream.

 

[KZNSeagull]

I like the adverts for skin regenerative creams that claim to heal "discolourations" on your face before you can even see them! Genius!

 

[Triggaaar]

Just for men

It targets the grey, and makes it match your natural hair colour. So, each molecule of hair die finds a strand of your hair that is not grey, and does colour analysis on it, before then selecting a grey strand to die in a similar colour to that already identified. That's f***ing clever.

 

[leigull]

All the make up adverts that say they'll give you longer eye lashes or something, that then say in small writing at bottom of the screen "fake eye lashes used"

 

[father_and_son]

Oh yes... and hair dye that "covers up to 100% of grey".

100% is all of it, so of course it covers up to 100% of grey. It can't cover *more* than one hundred f***ing percent and because it doesn't actually work that well, it will be *less* than 100%.

 

[pasty]

*Adopt corny Italian accent

"Whens-a-your-a-dolmio-a-day?"

Made in Holland