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Crazy Marketing Claims in Ads

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  • John772016
    John772016 Posts: 310 Member
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    It’s an ad for barefoot shoes.

    For the record I’m sitting here right now in barefoot shoes, and have worn them almost daily for years.

    Sadly, no effect on weight, unless you count wearing them to walk the dog or walk to yoga!

    Is your PT also amazed?

    I've seen a ton (no weight pun intended) of these 'wonderful shoes/inserts' recently; they're inundating social media with them; I'm not sure why, when I'm not trying to lose, I'm 'suggested' how much this 'shoes', 'inserts', etc can help me with the weight I want to lose.
    Will they help me with companies trying to rip me off with crap? I'd love help with that :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,351 Community Helper
    edited February 22
    Not exactly what I was thinking of when starting the thread, but I also find ads like the one below kind of a cultural oddity. Is this whistling past the graveyard? Don't get me wrong, I like and eat pizza so I'm not dissing that, even though the one I circled wouldn't be my main choice . . . but the naming of this one seems . . . hmmm. Far from the first time seeing something similar. :D

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  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 14,796 Member
    There's a hamburger joint in Las Vegas which advertises itself as heart-attack inducing due to its ultra-greasy content loaded with cheese and bacon and whatnot, with the staff wearing emergency medical personnel uniforms. One customer actually had a real heart attack while there; reportedly he survived, and now gets free food for life from the place.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 19,161 Member
    edited February 22
    nossmf wrote: »
    There's a hamburger joint in Las Vegas which advertises itself as heart-attack inducing due to its ultra-greasy content loaded with cheese and bacon and whatnot, with the staff wearing emergency medical personnel uniforms. One customer actually had a real heart attack while there; reportedly he survived, and now gets free food for life from the place.

    LOL I've been there. It's hideous. I believe they used to weigh bigger people as they came in and if you were over a certain weight (350lb maybe?), you also ate free.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,527 Member
    @ Ann - maybe kid does so much cardiac exercise that he needs to eat back the amount of calories in a meal lovers pizza?????
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 9,866 Member
    Your phone is listening.

    The kids bought an Ivar shelving unit at IKEA yesterday, brought it in and were chattering to me about it while they assembled it. I got a Temu ad in my feed for shelving.

    Then one said “we’ll go to town tomorrow and buy the hammock”.

    No joke, I then got a Temu ad for a double, unflippable hammock for $1.78. Not a typo.

    Husband and I were laughing about the quality for $1.78. I had just paid that for the cheapest thinnest plastic drop cloth!
  • John772016
    John772016 Posts: 310 Member
    Redux6x86 wrote: »
    Easily accesible AI that anybody can use has caused an uptick in these before and after ads, the man in the picture below never existed - I generated him in about 10 seconds with a prompt on Grok. The text I pulled out of thin air is totally true, honest.

    q3XBgKq.png

    *Results may vary - so 1 day for me right?
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,473 Member
    John772016 wrote: »
    Redux6x86 wrote: »
    Easily accesible AI that anybody can use has caused an uptick in these before and after ads, the man in the picture below never existed - I generated him in about 10 seconds with a prompt on Grok. The text I pulled out of thin air is totally true, honest.

    q3XBgKq.png

    *Results may vary - so 1 day for me right?

    That is the $15,000 package. The disclaimer is almost the same.

    *Results may vary. Price changes may not impact results.
  • Redux6
    Redux6 Posts: 65 Member
    robertw486 wrote: »
    John772016 wrote: »
    Redux6x86 wrote: »
    Easily accesible AI that anybody can use has caused an uptick in these before and after ads, the man in the picture below never existed - I generated him in about 10 seconds with a prompt on Grok. The text I pulled out of thin air is totally true, honest.

    *Results may vary - so 1 day for me right?

    That is the $15,000 package. The disclaimer is almost the same.

    *Results may vary. Price changes may not impact results.

    Heh, exactly - 15k, and an extra bit in the small print about how 'ripped' may or may not be short for 'ripped off.' :D

    @robertw486 - by the way, is your username tech related? I used to use 486 in some of my online names, but it turns out somebody else online was using it and let's just say I didn't want people confusing us. Sorry for the random question.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 9,866 Member
    Wow! That’s very professional!

    @SurferGirl1982 now they’re using lookalike AI people for faux celebrity ads. I just got an ad for an “INSANE” pair of credit cards with a Jennifer Garner (Capital One’s spokesperson) lookalike. I did a doubletake, enlarged the photo, and it’s a dead ringer except for really big lips and a couple other minor feature changes.

    The world is just getting crass.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,351 Community Helper
    I figure the best thing to do, when companies use truly skeezy marketing - stolen images of celebrities, celebrity lookalikes, stupid claims with an asterisk and fine print - is not to deal with those companies at all. If they're cheat-y in their advertising, what other cheats and corner-cutting do they condone?

    Mild exception for the asterisk thing in cases where it's essentially mandated, such as "past returns don't predict future results" in an investment prospectus that has a chart/stats of past results.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 14,796 Member
    Years back, saw a commercial from a lawyer which was essentially saying "Did you lose money in the stock market? You could be entitled to compensation!" Don't know how much this idiot had to do with the "past returns cannot predict future results" fine print, but wouldn't surprise me.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,527 Member

    and that one is so subtle that nobody would suspect it is an advertising scam 🙄

  • angf0679
    angf0679 Posts: 1,525 Member

    I was doing some research on some natural ways to help myself with perimenopause symptoms

    My Facebook has started giving me adds for a perimenopause ring that is supposed to help me loose my belly. How exactly is wearing a ring supposed to help me loose belly fat?? 😂😂

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 9,866 Member
    edited March 6

    about the same way that Amazon/costco/Target “sold out!!!!!” Face creams are going to make me young, winkle free, and beautiful?


    and I haven’t even researched being any of the above. I guess the reverse camera on my phone is reporting my shortcomings to some marketer. 😫

  • John772016
    John772016 Posts: 310 Member

    well…. now there going to double down; you'll get face creams to make you look 20 again & phone ads with new cameras that can cut that in half again with their filters.

    They just need to throw in the 'How to make money looking younger as a tween influencer' and you'll have the trifecta!

    *I'm expecting that I'll now see ads for a perimenopause ring and additional adds to lose my belly fat.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,351 Community Helper

    That only seems fair, since I - and I assume other women - routinely get spam about "male enhancement" products, or, um, male endurance supplements. 🙄🤣

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 9,866 Member

    nope. Not me.

    🤣

  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,876 Member

    I used to get loads of ads for beard products (I follow Oly Lifters on IG and sport obvs means I’m a bloke right?). I also used to get ads for shredding programmes, again aimed at men. I had to spend a while curating my IG feed to get rid of most of them. They creep back in every now and then.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,351 Community Helper

    Most of them are in my spam folder, but they're there. Equivalent products for females only seem to be mentioned as a by-product . . . they don't seem to be selling things for that. I admit, I don't read them closely, just going by the subject lines. The phishing spams are more numerous, but the male-enhancement ones are very high occurrence. I also get bundles of "sell your property" spam, but that's situational, don't think everyone probably gets those.

    (No, I'm not wealthy. I have a small undeveloped wooded property that's been in my family since 1922, and it's in a hot area for rural real estate development. They get my data off public tax rolls and hound me by phone, letter, email, and text. Really.)

  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 4,950 Member

    I'm so sick of telemarketers who want to buy my house I'm thinking about disconnecting my phone. Get mail, too, but don't really care. Use it for scrap paper or toss it—at a time of my choosing.

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 9,866 Member
    edited March 8

    amen.!!!! We bought in an area about ten years ago. We’re in easy walking distance of everything except a grocery store- shops, restaurants, bars, bike path, gym, yoga, several parks. After the neighborhood built out and people finally noticed we were there, we became red hot - as did much of the rest of the town’s historical districts. We’re an easy commute to a major city.

    It’s trickled off, thankfully, but we were deluged with offers to buy, via text, email, snail mail, door hangers, people stopping us when we took the dog out, people knocking on the door, even neighbors soliciting via Facebook for friends who wanted in to the neighborhood .

    it reminded me of the traumatic period of “blockbusting” we went through when I was a young teen in the 70’s Literally all my friends and neighbors except for a couple abandoned ship within a twelve month period . Before internet, but the level of phone calls and door knocks was mega mega

    The ones I absolutely hate are the mailers where they’ve screen shotted the house via Google maps, and mail us RE or insurance offers. Getting a letter with a photo of your home is absolutely an invasion of privacy, and gives me the full body heebie jeebies. I tear them to shreds, they make me so angry.

    I know there’s a way to blur out your home on google maps, but jeez, why should I have to go down yet another unecessary rabbit hole?

  • AmunahSki
    AmunahSki Posts: 268 Member

    Have we had this one yet?

    IMG_8490.jpeg IMG_8491.jpeg

    Is it me, or do these ladies look very AI generated?

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    I eat a fairly Mediterranean diet. I took the ‘survey’ in the interests of research… from 75kg to 65kg (175lb to 143lb), and it gave me this:

    IMG_8503.jpeg

    Their ‘no.diet diet’ predicts losing at an average rate of 1.25kg per week (2.75 lb).

    In contrast, my actual weight loss journey last year, and I can tell you it took me 231 days (33 weeks), losing at an average of 0.3kg a week (0.6 lb). I think that was pretty fast enough for someone of my height (164cm, or 5’4.5”)

    I’m not sure I could have lost it any faster, as I was on a net 1350 calories - anything less could have affected my health, I have no doubt.

    Please, don’t let them suck you into paying for this nonsense!

  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,527 Member

    Amunah - I lost about same as you and 10kg took me 10 months on 1460 net calories.

    would be crazy to expect that in 6 weeks.

  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 4,950 Member
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    30 pounds a month. Make your own probiotic pumpkin seed drink. I'm in. I love 🎃 seeds!