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Sometimes false advertising is easy to spot. Statements like “Lose 20 pounds in 5 days” or “Make $1 million a month while sitting at home” seem to choke on their own incredulity, but sometimes marketers employ a little more finesse to bamboozle you. Here are six examples of shamelessly false advertising that weren’t just implicitly misleading, they were blatant lies!
1. Listerine as a Cure-All
Listerine was the first over-the counter mouthwash sold in the United States in 1914 and by 1921 it was already falsely marketing its product. Declaring itself a cure-all for common cold ailments like sore throats and coughs, a dandruff preventative, an anti-shave tonic, and a safe way to protect yourself from cuts, bruises, wounds, and stings, Listerine was slapped with numerous false advertisement lawsuits. In 1975, the Federal Trade Commission ordered the company to spend $10 million in corrective advertising, seeing as their product was no more effective in treating colds than gargling warm water. Even then, the mouthwash giant didn’t really learn their lesson. In 2005, the company was slapped with another lawsuit. This time because Listerine claimed it was as “effective as floss” after rigging clinical trials.
2. Lydia Pickham’s Vegetable Compound (Great for boozy housewives!)
Touted as one of the world’s first successful businesswomen, Lydia Pickham exploited her reputation as a local medicine woman to propel her herbal remedy into a commercial success, eventually grossing almost $400,000 yearly. The remedy claimed to cure all womanly ailments and weaknesses and sold for $1 a bottle. What was in the herbal remedy? Turns out, it contained less than 1% solid substance from vegetable extracts and almost 20% alcohol. If a woman took the suggested 1 tablespoon, every 2-4 hours, she will have consumed 5 ounces of 13.5% or higher alcohol by the end of the day- more than enough for a healthy buzz that made life seem a bit more cheery to boozy housewives. When the Federal Trade Commission tightened its laws on claims made by medicines, Lydia Pickham’s Vegetable Compound had to swallow the restrictions with a spoonful of sugar.
3. Crystal Clear Amoco Gasoline: Good, Clean Fun
In 1996, the Amoco Oil Company agreed to settle a Federal Trade Commission charge that its “Crystal Clear Amoco Ultimate” advertised unsubstantiated claims. The premium gasoline, because of its clear color, boasted superior engine performance and environmental benefits. The fact is, at the time the country was going through a clear revolution. Pepsi had gone clear (Crystal clear, in fact!). Clearly Canadian was dominating shelves. And Amoco, which had for years made a clear colored fuel, decided to capitalize on the trend. Unfortunately, they had no factual evidence to substantiate their “better for the environment and your engine” claims, and the company was forced to curb their campaign.
4. Dr. Koch’s Cure All
Starting in 1919, Dr. William Frederick Koch bottled and marketed a cancer, infection, and allergy cure-all with the help of his brother Louis. His drug glyoxylide, which he claimed cured “practically all human ills, including . . . tuberculosis” sold for $25 (1948 price) in local drug stores. The FDA had always been suspicious of the doctor, but not until they tested the drug in 1948 and found it contained nothing more than distilled water were their suspicions confirmed. And what proved to be more appalling, they discovered that Dr. Koch had been treating cancer patients by telling them to detox with the aid of enemas and fresh fruit and vegetable juices, taking only the smallest doses of painkillers. Unfortunately, despite all of his patients dying enough evidence was never found to present a viable case against him, and Dr. Koch moved to Rio de Janeiro in the late 1940s.
5. Airborne Gets a Flunking Grade
“It’s the one designed by the school teacher!” Airborne, which entered the market 10 years ago first claimed to prevent colds, then claimed to boost your immune system, and is now claiming a federal lawsuit. In March of this year, Airborne settled a lawsuit in which it agreed to pay over $23 million in fines for false advertising. David Schardt, who spearheaded the lawsuit against Airborne says there is no factual evidence to back the companies claims, amounting Airborne to a placebo and advising people fighting colds to simply take a Vitamin C pill.
6. The Trick Wedding straight from Mickey Blue Eyes
We know this one isn’t a product, but the story was so good we had to include it. In September 1990, a group of drug crime suspects in Corunna, Michigan, received an invitation to a wedding from a well–known drug dealer in the area. Attendees were asked to check their guns at the entrance, apparently a common occurrence at these events. As part of a five-month undercover investigation, the police staged and advertised a wedding on a Friday night, figuring it was easier to make drug suspects come to them than to round them up. The groom was an undercover investigator, the bride a Flint police officer, and the bride’s father (and reputed crime boss) was the police chief. That evening, after the vows, the toasts, and the dancing, the band, called SPOC, or COPS spelled backward, played “Fought the Law,” setting off the cue for the evening’s real agenda. All the police officers were then asked to stand, and those who remained seated were arrested. A dozen suspects were booked and, by Saturday afternoon, 16 were in custody.
With research assistance from Megan McGinn and mental_floss presents Forbidden Knowledge.
Comments (17)
Comment
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Listerine’s current advertisement ropes in stupid people to buy their product and use it twice as much so they have to buy it again twice as fast. How? “Use Listerine at night to kill the germs in your mouth while you’re sleeping!” It amazes me that people buy this crap to “kill the germs” instead of what it’s only good for: Giving you good breath for an hour. Just buy breath mints for $1 at your liquor store.
posted by Pablo on 7-30-2008 at 2:19 pm
An election year, and no political commercials? Talk about false advertising!
posted by Witty Nickname on 7-30-2008 at 3:06 pm
Didn’t Geritol get into the same kind of “boozy” trouble as #2, in the late 50s?
posted by Jeff on 7-30-2008 at 3:16 pm
Listerine does kill germs, that’s what all that alcohol is for. Perform an experiment though and you’ll learn that it’s almost worse that not using mouthwash at all. It dries your mouth out giving those bacteria plenty of help in growing. Chew gum, drink water. . .anything that flushes your mouth without drying it out and you’ll do a better job over all.
Airborne does contain lots of vitamins and minerals, though in the end it is equivalent to taking some vitamins instead. That placebo effect works, sometimes it’s better to imagine it works than figuring out the truth!
fittings ye
posted by Meg on 7-30-2008 at 3:59 pm
Don’t forget Carter’s Little Liver Pills. They claimed to cure your liver or something. Advertised that for decades. They finally had to drop “Liver” from their name in the ’80s, I think.
posted by Rachel on 7-30-2008 at 4:08 pm
“she will have consumed 5 ounces of 13.5% or higher alcohol”
“says there is no factual evidence to back the companies claims, amounting Airborne to a placebo”
Maybe I’m picking nits, but you might want to do a grammar double-check next time. The first one is just messy, but the second…how do I “amount” something?
-D
posted by David on 7-30-2008 at 6:19 pm
W-a-a-y back, like in the 30’s some cigarettes advertised that they were good for your health.
posted by partiallyDeflected on 7-30-2008 at 8:45 pm
I Love Lucy made fun of Lydia Pickham’s Vegetable Compound with the vita-mina-vegimin episode.
posted by oose85 on 7-30-2008 at 10:18 pm
@ partiallyDeflected: I’ve seen those ads. I wish I could remember where, they were hilarious/terrifying.
Also, someone left the word ‘of’ out of the title on this post.
posted by adrienne on 7-30-2008 at 10:52 pm
Pinkham, not Pickham. (You were close!)
posted by John Hoffacker on 7-30-2008 at 11:44 pm
Speaking of false advertising:
“David Schardt…. [advises] people fighting colds to simply take a Vitamin C pill.”
Mr. Schardt should read up on Dr. Linus Pauling and the fallacy of vitamin C and the common cold. Not that it will keep people from taking the stuff ;-)
posted by Nicholas Saadah on 7-31-2008 at 12:22 am
i have to say.. without ever having heard the advertisements, i discovered that listerine is actually really great for some sore throats. mine are generally the allergy kind in the back of my mouth, so a little gargle with listerine normally sets me up for several pain-free hours.
posted by tami on 7-31-2008 at 8:14 am
5 oz of 13.5% alcohol over the time period you gave would not get anyone drunk. not a housewife, not anyone.
posted by kelly on 7-31-2008 at 11:24 am
My husband loves lysterine for mouth sores. It really helps him get rid of the harmful bacteria growing there and lets it have a chance to heal.
Some people think that the vitamin C tests were done with too little vitamin C. People have seen real results taking 1000 mg every hour at the first sign of cold symptoms.
posted by Andrea on 8-1-2008 at 9:44 pm
I don’t know why companies even try false advertising – they only get one-time-only customers because once people find out the product doesn’t work, they don’t buy it again. Seems like a waste of money to me. And, just recently, Purely Juice just had to pay $1.5 million in damages to Pom Wonderful for saying their drink contained 100% pomegranate juice and no added sugar, when in fact it only had trace amounts of pomegranate juice and a “healthy dose” of high fructose corn syrup. Obviously, no one thought of a diabetic person drinking this, thinking it’s healthy and then going into a sugar coma. Bring on the lawsuits!
posted by Poster Printing | PrintPlace on 8-1-2008 at 9:56 pm
PosterPrinting: fructose does not trigger insulin. Only glucose does (and sucrose is glucose+fructose) so high fructose corn syrup does not impact diabetes. The excess calories are another think altogether, though. “No Added Sugar” is used a lot where alternate sweeteners ARE added as it means, in USDA speak, sucrose or ‘cane sugar’. I get a kick out of all the organic foods in my grocery that talk about being healthy cereals or cookies or whatever that list ‘concentrated cane syrup’ on the label. Just means table sugar.
posted by perm3800 on 8-15-2008 at 8:13 am
per3800: Hold it, hold it, hold it!
While you’re right that fructose is relatively safe for diabetics (like me), you’re dangerously wrong about high-fructose corn syrup!
High-fructose corn syrup and glucose-fructose are the same thing: glucose (corn syrup) infused with fructose. This makes it really dangerous stuff for anyone, but especially for diabetics, because it’s highly processed, so the sugars in it are instantly absorbed into the bloodstream.
Since they’re already processed, your body doesn’t need to break them down, so they send your blood glucose level (what diabetic test strips & meters measure) soaring, and then cause it to suddenly plummet soon afterwards. Think of the sugar high, and crash that you get after drinking a sugary soda or eating a candy bar (both big sources of glucose-fructose/high-fructose corn syrup). Well those peaks & crashes can be disastrous to a diabetic.
Diabetics either don’t produce enough insulin to break down sugars (Type 1), or their bodies can’t use the insulin they do produce (Type 2). So diabetics have to do all they can to maintain steady blood glucose levels, and avoid the huge peaks & crashes. Too high or too low, and you can go into shock or coma. You can even die. And the constant stress of those peaks & crashes does a number on your heart, your circulation, your liver, your kidneys… It can even make you go blind.
posted by PR on 10-1-2008 at 6:56 pm