"Made with real ingredients" and other virtually meaningless marketing statements?

mikki-b

Just had a email from my sister who has just got a new satnav. Apparently on the quick start guide it says that it 'the signal may be lost when driving inside trees'. :beer:

jamesh

The shampoo tv adverts claim, say 60% cleaner or shine.

Small print mentions compared to not washing your hair.

Paul_Herring

Dettol wrote:

Fact: Some bacteria are almost indestructible. They can even survive in lava.

Almost indestructible? Whatever.

And they can't survive lava. The hottest bacteria have been seen to remain viable is around 130'C, and DNA and other celluar structures start breaking down around 150'C. Lava is 700'C+

The "kills 99.9% of bacteria" annoys me as well. What about the other 0.1%? Is it bench pressing trucks in the corner of your kitchen?

mateypeeps

I was amuseed by one product's claim "does not contain chemicals".

From a chemist's point of view this means it contains nothing.

What they meant was no artificial (man made) chemicals.

Even that is a bit vague.

glider3560

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Almost indestructible? Whatever.

And they can't survive lava. The hottest bacteria have been seen to remain viable is around 130'C, and DNA and other celluar structures start breaking down around 150'C. Lava is 700'C+

I did a little research when I first saw this advert. According to one of my uni tutors (he researches in bacteria), the highest temperature bacteria can survive is 122 degrees (Methanopyrus). When first expelled, lava is between 700 and 1000 degrees. Clearly a very misleading advert.

Perhaps they mean cooled down lava?

cse

Even more misleading than that - the cleaning product (Dettol?) adverts which start off by telling you how a single bacteria (which should be 'bacterium' in any case) can turn into millions overnight, then follows it up by saying that said cleaning product kills 99.9% of them. Well that's put my mind at ease, it's a good job that the remaining 0.1% can't turn into millions overnight or anything like that...

Hezzawithkids

Slightly left field but another marketing ploy that makes me cringe (and I work in marketing!) is the "Serving Suggestion" pictures on many packets & tins. Like we can't work out for ourselves how to put stuff on a plate??? And I'm sure we don't need to see steam coming off the food to demonstrate what might happen when it gets heated up. The one I'll always remember was the "serving suggestion" on a packet of Twiglets - a photo of a pile of Twiglets on a blue napkin!! Thanks, hadn't thought of that.....:D

pjcox2005

Slightly different take but my favourite are the fairy, persil ads etc that regularly launch a new product stating new and imporved on the last version, lasts longer etc.

Given how long the products have been about it and how many updates it makes me wonder how bad they must have been when they were first launched!!!

Paul_Herring

glider3560 wrote: »

Perhaps they mean cooled down lava?

That wouldn't surprise me actually.

williham

Farm fresh on eggs or Grove fresh on orange juice...
I would expect eggs to come from a farm and I'd like to hope that they're fresh!

I would expect oranges to come from a grove and I'd hope that the juice is fresh as well!