Crazy Marketing Claims in Ads

paperpudding

wow, Ann. I hadn’t thought of it like that. I had wondered how many of the aggressively stupid and provocative political texts I got were scam-click-bait. You may be on to something there. Make it stupid and aggressive enough and a certain mentality (on either side) will click to rush to defend.

Apart from politics or weight loss - there is a name for that - rage bait.

So a form of click bait whereby something really provocative is posted that the author doesnt really think but they know will have hordes rushing in to refute - and thereby getting traffic to their site.

eg Group claims women should not vote/ Men should never have to wash dishes...... or similar type statements.

MargaretYakoda

nossmf wrote: »

MargaretYakoda wrote: »

I couldn’t get a screenshot of it but today I saw a weight loss ad hawking hydrogenated water

I weep for humanity

Some years back, a couple people tried to get people to sign a petition to force the government to ban "dihydrous monoxide" (aka H20, or water), citing its nefarious ability to dissolve materials, increase erosion, encourage bacterial growth and how dozens of people die every year due to excessive exposure. They managed to get several hundred people to sign their petition.

On a college campus. A COLLEGE CAMPUS. True story.

Many years ago when my kid was a homeschooled teen that was his chosen project for the local homeschool science fair.

He got nearly everyone in the room to sign it. All the fundie kids and parents, as well as the crunchy granola hippie folks. And most of the neurodivergent homeschoolers too. (ADHD, dyslexic, dyscalcula, etc)

Even our town’s mayor signed it.
She was the judge of the fair, and honestly didn’t take it very well when the time came to actually judge the projects and my kid announced the results of the social experiment.
🤣🤣🤣🤪


Good times…. Good times….

Honestly I think my kid should have at least gotten a ribbon that day. It really was a brave demonstration in how important critical thinking is.

At least the fundie kids who had a poster “scientifically proving” that fish eyes prove the existence of a deity also didn’t win.

AnnPT77

nossmf wrote: »

MargaretYakoda wrote: »

I couldn’t get a screenshot of it but today I saw a weight loss ad hawking hydrogenated water

I weep for humanity

Some years back, a couple people tried to get people to sign a petition to force the government to ban "dihydrous monoxide" (aka H20, or water), citing its nefarious ability to dissolve materials, increase erosion, encourage bacterial growth and how dozens of people die every year due to excessive exposure. They managed to get several hundred people to sign their petition.

On a college campus. A COLLEGE CAMPUS. True story.

There's a wonderful web site about the dangers of "dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO)", complete with things like Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) with risk and handling guidelines, statistics on deaths and injuries, research reports, FAQs, and more.

Take a look:

https://www.dhmo.org/

Fabulous, solid satire, so so good.

Sample, from the intro to the FAQ:

"Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol."

Share the link with your friends on social media, with a neutral comment like "Have you heard about this?". (I did.) High odds the reactions will be interesting and varied, unless all your friends are chemists, or similar.