Top 10 Misleading Marketing Tactics

These ads might sound convincing, but they’re just too good to be true. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 misleading marketing tactics.

For this list, we’ve picked those common advertising themes, lines or techniques that are less-than-truthful when it comes to the product’s benefits. We’ve narrowed it down not to specific advertisements, but to marketing tactics that repeat themselves in ads from many different companies.

Ads for dating websites make you think you can easily find your soul mate with the click of a mouse, right? Well, not necessarily. Although ads for these sites suggest a rapid love connection, it tends to be more hit-or-miss – with an emphasis on the latter. Most big sites make big promises about the scientific process behind their matchmaking method; but few actually reveal that method to the public. Worse yet, some sites even create ghost profiles to entrap newbie members. So, daters beware.

With fast-food ads, looks can be deceiving. While any food photography employs a food stylist, some companies are less honest when it comes to what they show versus what they serve. For example, many real-life fast food hamburgers are not nearly as appealing as they look in commercials, but burgers aren’t the only culprit. For Subway, $5 footlongs fell short of their 12-inch promise and got the company into hot water. For Taco Bell, their “seasoned beef” prompted a lawsuit because the seasoning was oats and the beef was not 100% beef. Makes you wonder…

Seeing ads with sky-high production value for cars that claim to have tons of horsepower and are great on gas can make people want to race out to buy the newest model. However, as appealing as all that sounds, it’s not always truthful. Just ask owners of Hyundais and Kias from 2011-13. Over 900,000 cars between the two companies were advertised with exaggerated gas mileage – with some off by as much as 6 miles. That was an expensive fib, as Hyundai and Kia were forced to reimburse customers for their extra gas with prepaid debit cards.

When this bit of modern snake-oil first made its way onto infomercials across North America in the early millennium, Q-Ray claimed to relieve its customers of arthritis pain as soon as they put on the bracelet. Except there was one little catch: it didn’t. In fact, in 2008 the company behind the bracelet was told they must pay up to $87-million back to the consumers they swindled after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a suit, since there were no scientific studies to back up the bracelet’s claims. The refund checks came a few years later.

Recessions are the perfect time for scam artists out to make a quick buck off naïve and desperate people. These innocent citizens may’ve seen ads on Google or on TV, and they sound pretty appealing. After all, who wouldn’t want to work at home and make tons of cash? Or go through their jewelry box and make a mint? But there’s one big problem: they’re scams. For example, legitimate work-from-home jobs won’t ask you for money, and real gold buyers would pay much more for your treasure. With these, you’ll get poorer sooner than you’ll get richer.

If you’re truly gonna make a customer happy about buying your product, size does matter – at least in terms of what it looks like on the box or in your ad. If you show a picture of your hotel and it’s within steps of an important landmark, it’d better not be blocks away. If your microwavable dinner looks like a feast, it’d better not look like a carefully-portioned pile of mush when on a plate. Unfortunately, these are not even close to the only culprits; almost nothing is as great as it looks in the ad.

When you buy a body enhancement product, you’re gonna want it to – ahem – “enhance” a certain body part. What you’re not gonna want is to end up involved in a potentially embarrassing $6-million cash settlement. Unfortunately for users of the male herbal supplement ExtenZe, that’s exactly what happened. Despite ads with NASCAR drivers, NFL coaches and porn star Ron Jeremy promoting the pills, they didn’t give buyers as much, err, bang for their buck as they would’ve liked.

If you’ve seen a food ad before, chances are you’ve seen one that boasts certain health benefits that come with it. And chances are, those claims are mostly unsubstantiated, or at least they’re stretching the definition of terms like “natural.” Kellogg’s Kashi, Frosted Mini-Wheats and Rice Krispies cereals don’t boost your immunity or attentiveness – nor are their ingredients totally natural, and that left Kellogg’s in hot water. Plus, things like Diamond of California brand walnuts, POM Wonderful juice, Activia Yogurt and Splenda aren’t miracle foods either, ending with many companies involved in class-action lawsuits.