- Time to jump into the weirdness.
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Let's begin.
Most of the time when we buy things
it's because of what they're promising.
For example, this video is guaranteed
to grow you're hair back.
(bell dinging)
But companies aren't always honest.
In fact, some of the biggest companies in the world
have gotten in some serious trouble
about making false claims.
So here are the ones that have lied to you.
(oohing)
- Here are 10 products that turned out to be complete lies.
Number 10 is Kellogg's cereals.
As one of America's most trusted brands,
you would think that Kellogg's
would be an honest and dependable company.
But unfortunately, the breakfast food maker
has been under fire for misleading advertising
by the Federal Trade Commission not once once but twice.
In 2009 a message was added to the front
of Kellogg's Mini-Wheats boxes which claimed
that eating the cereal was clinically proven
to increase a child's attentiveness by 20%,
a claim that was obviously false.
If that was true, you'd see a lot more kids
popping Mini-Wheats instead of pills.
Kellogg's had to shell out $4 million
to pay back those who purchased the product,
but in 2010 a similar message appeared
on Rice Krispies, this one claiming
that the cereal would boost a child's immunity.
The company was forced to remove all the ads by the FTC
and had to agree to new advertising restrictions
for future campaigns.
Yeah, besides all that, it sounds better
just to say snap, crackle, pop
as opposed to immunity, smarts, and attentiveness.
Number nine is the iPhone 3G.
In 2008 Apple released the iPhone 3G
with an ad campaign that promised
it was twice as fast for half the price,
a statement that actually had two lies in it.
While many users were satisfied with the device,
a number of them pointed out that not only
was the price way higher than half price,
but the phone speed was incredibly disappointing.
Several lawsuits were actually filed against the corporation
for misleading advertisements.
But in a surprising turn of events,
Apple actually released a legal response
which, among 31 other points, declared
that the claims in their ads were so outrageous
that no reasonable person in a plaintiff's position
could have reasonably relied on or misunderstood
Apple's statements as claims or fact,
which essentially means you shouldn't take
everything you hear in Apple commercials as fact.
I think the mistake they made here
is assuming that everybody has common sense,
which we all know is not so common.
There's a lot of ...
a lot of special people out there.
Number eight is Listerine.
Science can be a tricky thing,
especially when it comes to biased science
that's conducted solely to sell merchandise.
A prime example involves Listerine mouthwash,
which was promoted by the then parent company,
Pfizer's marketing team, back in 2005
as an excellent replacement for flossing.
Soon after seeing the ad, a division of Johnson & Johnson
that sold dental floss filed a lawsuit
declaring the message Listerine was pushing
was misleading, and that dentists
had been recommending flossing daily for years.
Research shows still today that rinsing with mouthwash
is definitely not a substitute for flossing,
but the thing is this lie didn't just sell
plenty of mouthwash but was labeled
a potential public health risk.
Pfizer was actually forced to pull every ad
that contained the false claim.
Again, that's just kind of common sense,
especially if you talk to my grandma.
She's been telling me for the last 30 years,
"Make sure you floss, honey, every day."
Number seven is Nokia's Lumia 920.
In September of 2012 an online video advertisement
for Nokia's new phone, the Lumia 920, was released,
showcasing the amazing new stabilization technology
that it had within it as it recorded a woman riding a bike.
It looked fantastic and really got people's attention,
especially when eagle-eyed viewers pointed out
that a window's reflection behind the rider
caught the camera operator
and the camera that they were operating on.
The camera was a very large video camera,
not the phone that they were trying to advertise.
A number of people cried foul,
leading to a Nokia spokesperson issuing a public apology.
They admitted that the ad was definitely misleading
but claimed that their intent was to simulate
what the phone could do, not show actual footage.
Oh, of course!
Why would they want to do that,
give an idea of what people would actually be getting?
Oh, no.
Number six are Hoover vacuums.
If you're wondering if offering ridiculous perks
for individual purchases is a good idea,
let the story of the Hoover vacuum fiasco dissuade you.
In 1992 the British division of the Hoover company
announced a promotion which promised two free
round trip tickets to anywhere in Europe
or the United States, so long as the customer spent
over 100 pounds on any Hoover product.
However, the company didn't have the tickets
or even enough appliances to meet the demand
of over 200,000 buyers who were more interested
in the ridiculously cheap airfare
than the vacuums themselves.
Trapped by their own lies, Hoover tried
to hold off customers demanding their tickets,
but in 1998 they were ordered to pay
over 48 million pounds to those people.
Numerous executives were fired,
and the division was sold off to another company.
Honey, look what I got for our anniversary.
It's a vacuum!
Psych, it's actually a round-trip ticket.
And it was a scam, so here's just the vacuum.
Number five are Skechers.
If you're looking to become a healthier you
and have decided to start jogging or simply walking,
then you're going to need to get yourself
a good pair of running shoes.
But maybe avoid any shoe that claims
it's going to literally burn the calories for you.
Okay, I'm wearing the sneakers.
I think I feel the burn.
Now, this isn't a warning that normal people
should have to receive, but in early 2012
it was one that they sure could have benefited from.
This is because in May of 2012, shoe company Skechers
reached a $40 million settlement with the FTC,
promising to pay the money back to those
who bought their Shape-up shoes,
which the company initially claimed
would help sneaker wearers lose weight.
Skechers even had a chiropractor endorse the shoes,
claiming that he'd done an independent study.
Yeah, the trouble is that he was married
to a Skechers marketing rep.
Yeah, I don't know, this whole thing sounds ...
sketchy.
I'm sorry, I had to, it was low-hanging fruit.
Number four is Olay.
As most of you know, it's a common practice
in making magazine ads that a little retouching is done:
maybe correct the lighting or bring the contrast up a bit,
basically make the product or service being advertised
appear in the best light possible.
However, if you're a major makeup company
advertising de-aging cream,
and that retouching includes making your model
seem even younger than physically possible,
then maybe you're doing something wrong.
That's what several British lawmakers decided
in December of 2009, when they accused Olay,
a company under the Procter & Gamble flag,
of purposely misleading their customers.
The ad, which was for Olay's Definity eye cream
was banned by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.
Olay was allegedly not fined,
but issued an apology for their poor decisions.
Oh yes, spread this cream on your face,
you'll be 20 years younger. (chuckling)
Or you'll just spend a lot of money on useless cream,
but you never know!
Number three are One A Day vitamins.
Bayer's insanely popular multivitamin One A Day
has been on pharmacy shelves since 1940.
However, what was once a seemingly wholesome brand
focused on helping people stay healthy
has more recently become a dishonest one
more focused on the almighty dollar than consumers.
In October of 2010 the states of California,
Illinois and Oregon sued Bayer,
citing research that revealed that selenium,
an ingredient in the multivitamins that the company
claimed help reduce prostate cancer
actually had no effect on the illness.
Bayer actually used the fear of men's prostate cancer
to sell more of men's vitamins, when they allegedly knew
that the product wasn't fighting it.
So they settled for a fine of $3.3 million
and agreed to no longer claim that One A Day vitamins
prevented any disease.
Seriously folks, if you think that multivitamins
are gonna do anything other than
give you a little energy boost
and make you pee bright yellow, you're mistaken.
Number two are cigarettes.
Believe it or not, there was actually a time
when cigarette companies were allowed to say
just about anything about their products.
And surprisingly that included a bold-faced lie
that smoking was actually good for you.
Seriously.
Back in the 1920s, advertisements started showing up
in the form of posters and magazine inserts
that claimed that doctors supported smoking
in large numbers.
One ad put out by Lucky Strike cigarettes
stated that 20,679 physicians
say that Luckys are less irritating,
implying that doctors were recommending cigarettes,
while other ads outright claimed not to be harmful at all.
It was later revealed that many of the "doctors"
who appeared in respected publications
were not physicians at all, but instead actors.
Then of course, shockingly, it was proven that cigarettes
are terrible for you, news that upset many people.
Really though?
Nobody ever thought, "Geez, you know,
"the fact that my mouth, my teeth, and my nails
"are turning yellow, that's not healthy?
"'Cause I thought that was a sign of health."
And number one are miracle drugs.
Before you go shelling out loads of cash
for that all-natural weight loss drug,
maybe do more research than watching a TV doc's talk show.
On June 17th, 2014 Dr. Mehmet Oz appeared
before the United State Senate's Consumer Protection Panel,
where he confessed that the language that he used
while discussing the miracle products
that were featured on his show was simply flowery
and that he did not believe that there was any
real miracle pill out there in the world.
See, the trouble with that is that Dr. Oz
was a cardiothoratic surgeon before becoming
a television personality, and thus his endorsement
carries more weight than a fictional doctor.
A number of pills and specific food products
that he pushed sold like crazy in a market
already rife with false hope for a slimmer waist,
and Dr. Oz found himself in hot water because of it.
Listen, folks, don't just be taking people's words
just because they're on TV.
Dr. Phil, for example, yeah,
I don't even know if he's really a doctor,
but he does have a pretty sweet Texas accent, okay?
So that's it.
Make sure you do you research, people.
I don't want to see you being taken advantage of.
And that being said,
go follow my accounts in the description!
Throwing that at you again.
Seriously, I think you're going to enjoy the podcast
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It's gonna be great.
I'll see you guys and those accounts and in the next video.
Goodbye now.