The Super Bowl is coming soon, and the world's leading brands are already preparing their commercials for this event, urging us to buy them and only their products. The space around us is just overflowing with a wide variety of advertising, and it becomes very difficult, almost impossible, to distinguish an absolute scam from really useful things and services.
Recently, this issue was raised in the AskReddit community and, in fact, advertisers and marketers should carefully read the resulting thread. However, we ordinary consumers should too. Here Bored Panda has put together this selection for you, which will definitely come in handy.
This post may include affiliate links.
I've said this before, and I'm gonna say it again.
DETOX PRODUCTS DON'T F*****G WORK! YOU DON'T NEED A DETOX! YOU HAVE A LIVER, A KIDNEY OR TWO (idk, maybe someone reading this has extra kidneys) AND OTHER ORGANS THAT NATURALLY DETOXIFY YOU!
COLLEGE TEXT BOOKS. You need edition 10 for this class. They change one chapter in the book make it a new edition over price it and f**k the college kids. Always drove me nuts when I was I college.
Or change the order of chapters. Boggles the mind that something like this is legal.
Any person is surrounded by such a huge amount of various scams that it becomes scary to stay out of trouble here. However, people tend to put themselves at risk. At least because marketing and promotion are usually done by professionals, but it's all targeted to amateurs. In other words, there are no specialized courses at any university on how, for example, to distinguish between trustworthy advertising and the kind that you should stay away from.
Branded painkillers like Advil or Tylenol. Just buy generic and save money. It’s the same thing.
Made in the same factories. The only difference is the name brand is stamped with the brand. The up charge you pay for is the company's marketing campaign.
Anything that claims to target the loss of fat from a specific area of your body.
In search of gaining confidence, people often turn to experts - and here lies the main snag. The problem is that assessing someone's level of expertise in the modern world is also not that easy. Any person in a stylish suit, confidently broadcasting in a beautifully furnished studio, can turn out to be either a proven expert with decades of experience under the belt, or just a talented crook.
Various certificates and diplomas, which are traditionally considered signs of expertise, unfortunately, have depreciated considerably in the 21st century. These attributes may be genuine, or they may simply mislead gullible people to create the effect of trusting what the "expert" says to make a purchase or invest money.
Peloton bikes. Over a thousand dollars to buy a stationary exercise bicycle and you still need to pay a monthly subscription to get the most out of the bike.
All of those weight loss teas influencers promoted a few years ago. They’re just laxatives.
Dude..... What do you expect? If there was a miracle drug that could actually burn fat, it would be known by the entire world...
Insurance. The one product you pay for and are never supposed to actually use. And if you do use it, you are penalized.
Depends. Auto, life and home insurance are "wasteful".... until you need 'em. And then you're so frigging glad you're not out of pocket $75K for repairs after that storm blew a tree through your house and car, instead of the $20K you spent hte last 20 years paying premiums.
"I think that a lot of people who are not normally gullible can get caught up in these scams because it has to do with the distortion of - the undermining of - normally good decision-making principles," says Robert Cialdini, formerly Regents' Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, in an interview with Kendal.org. "The root cause of people falling victim to a financial fraud is their uncertainty about the details of the financial environment. When people feel uncertain about financial decisions, they look outside themselves, and this sets them up for the fraud."
Any vehicle you have to pay extra to unlock a feature, specifically new cars
Academic databases like Elsevier and JSTOR. No matter what you or your school pays for access, exactly $0.00 goes to the researchers. Fun fact: if you contact the researcher directly, they will usually email you a copy for free.
PLOS has the same academic studies and is free. Scientific peer reviewed research.
As a result, the world is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of confidence. This was facilitated by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased turbulence of the world community in recent years. Thus, according to the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer, the general level of public confidence has decreased from 53 percent in 2020 to 48 percent in 2021. We are almost sure that by the end of 2022, this indicator has decreased even more.
"Without a trusted leadership source to look to, people don't know where or who to get reliable information. The global infodemic has driven trust in all news sources to record lows with social media (35 percent) and owned media (41 percent) the least trusted; traditional media (53 percent) saw the largest drop in trust at eight points globally," the study notes.
Those stupid copper and magnet bracelets.
Sea Monkeys - I never got a single one with a crown and trident!
The high-profile revelations of recent years, such as Theranos or Nikola, have also not contributed to the growth of people's trust in startups or big business. Moreover, netizens still tend to consider many things an absolute scam - just read this recent compilation post of ours, for example. In any case, we are sure that this list will be useful to you, and if any of the products or services that you do not trust are not here, please feel free to add them in the comments.
Single-use access codes for college textbooks is pretty much racketeering.
homeopathy
The picture does not fit. It should just be sugar as any useful ingredients that could for example come from herbs cannot be found anymore in homeopathic products
Yes, it's really annoying that some people still don't seem to understand the difference between herbal remedies, which I assume was what the picture meant to show, and homeopathy.
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Going by the theory that water has a memory and the fact that all water on this planet has been recycled over and over again since the dawn of time passing through all plants, animals and what have you. They say it gets "stronger" the more diluted it gets (dunno how that works but anyway) by that rationality my tap water should have the cure for cancer in it as well as the cure for everything
Reminds me of this funny 'pope water' post I remember seeing somewhere... basically, if you add regular water to holy water, it does not dilute the holy water, it all becomes holy. As long as the mix is at least 51% holy water, that is. So some family out there posted their gallon milk jug of holy water with sharpie lines marked on it to remind them when/how much to refill so they'd never run out. They'd bought holy water on a vacation to the Vatican like 2 popes ago, that pope's long gone but they still have a gallon of immortal 'pope water' in their linen closet.
Load More Replies... Many useful legit meds came out of herbs/plants, etc. Homeopathy, however, will even use arsenic or mercury, b/c homeopathy is based on the idea that if a lot kills, a little cures. (Gross oversimplification, but it's Monday morning.)
it's harmless though because it is so diluted. Each dilution will at least halve the quantity of molecules of ingredients other than water. At about D6 you have negligible ingredients other than water. At D12 there is nothing but water.
Load More Replies... "Western medicine is about making money. Not holistic medicine, that's about NAAATURE. That will be $233 please." - Miss Information, South Park.
Don’t get me started on that scam. I can go on for an hour on that s**t, before I get violent! I have friends and family that believe that nonsense. Please. If you have the time, Google and read about what it is. Not only is the basic premise ludicrous, but not only wouldn’t the stuff at FULL strength not help the particular ailment, but at the dilution ratios sold, there is not even one molecule of the original substance left! Homeopathy says that the “memory “ of that original substance is was cures you. Anybody want to buy a bridge ?
Homeopathy is not a scam. Using it in place of medicine is. There are homeopath remedies that work.
no they don't! There's not a single shred of agent in a homeopathic "remedy". Scientific double blind gold standard studies could never provide any evidential effect beyond a placebo
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Absolutely, in fact both homeopathy and chiropractic derive from pre-modern ideas of fisiologi and how the body works. They have since tried to polish the turd of their origins but the original concept is wrong.
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I would say this depends on expected outcomes and what one considers homeopathic. Many medications started out as natural herbs and plants until until science found a way to mass produce the meds or focus on the active chemicals that make those natural ingredients work. So, yes natural ingredients can work but they can't necessarily cure.
Homeopathy is not the same as herbal medicine, it is specifically based on the idea that dilution increases potency. Some people are confused about the definitions but that doesn't make it correct (same as many referring to Astronomy as Astrology doesn't make the terms interchangeable - it's still a mistake, just a common one). And regarding herbal medicine, it does work but you can't control the dosage very well - if correct dosage is important, modern medications are the way to go; that's one of the *reasons* why modern school medicine prefers pills over herbs.
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The truth is in the name. Homeo = similar to. Pathy = suffering or disease. homeopathy = resembles suffering. This will make things worse.
It can't make anything worse, because the homeopathic medicines contain only trace amounts of any active substance, if any at all.
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I'm really surprised reading these. I had zero idea that homeopathy had anything to do with dilution or water's "memory". I just thought it was about people trying to use natural medicine.
I could write paragraphs about homeopathy - first they take a substance and give it to a healthy person until they get sick then determine that the sickness is what that substance will cure. But only after diluting 10 to 1 10 times - there is nothing of the stuff left, just the 'memory' of it in the water; that is what is supposed to cure you, sigh
It's way too high a price for what is essentially a water-based tincture of water.
Not going to get into the whole story but homeopathy worked for me when I had some physical issues. But I worked with a very attentive person who was well trained. Not someone from the health food Store supplements section.
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Its not a scam in India (yet, but some people just cannot benefit from certain homeopathic products coz genetics). So come here, buy the meds, travel all over Delhi for 2-3 days straight on a personal rickshaw, then go home, all for the same price at which you'd be buying the American meds.
Great. I can buy my mystic placebo-effect sugar pills cheaper in another country, and fly there in the process to burn some more carbon! Nobody can " benefit" from honeopathic products, no matter what their genetics, because it's completely made up nonsense.
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No, it isn't an authentic form of medicine. If you look up the roots of the homeopathic movement, and NOT from a homeopathy site, you'll see it's a scam that good people believe in. There's absolutely nothing medicinal about extremely diluted herbs and flowering things. If it worked, don't you think the international medical community would recommend homeopathy to their sick patients?
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McAffee and Norton antivirus software
I'm getting rid of McAfee. They tried to renew my subscription recently when it's not expired for another month. I keep getting popups for more security options. I just want an antivirus that works in the background and not have to think about it.
Ear wax candles. Burn one not in an ear, and it still fills up with wax.
There was a Mythbusters episode where they try making a candle out of earwax. They discovered that earwax can't melt like candle wax because of all the dead skin cells. It wasn't mentioned on the show, but that would definitively prove that ear candles are a scam.
That s****y Prime drink from Logan Paul, especially in the UK. Kids are using it as a status symbol because apparently its hard to get there?
Its an overpriced energy drink, absolutely ridiculous.
Be careful when drinking this. Rumor has it you'll go crazy and start mocking a corpse.
Are NFTs still famous?
The Shake Weight had its heyday
My elderly mother bought one when they were popular. I’d have to sit, withholding gales of laughter, as she’d be at her desk at the family business, repeatedly making rather obscene motions with this very phallic object. She was utterly oblivious and thought it was actually going to help her lose weight and build muscle XD
Charcoal toothpaste. It scrapes your teeth
I have a news flash, most ALL toothpaste brands do this. To be honest it's how they work.
There was a product in the 80’s it was a blanket that gaurenteed you could lose weight by just sitting in it
Waist trainers.
AKA Corsets. The same things our grandmothers rebelled against, rejected, and just simply stopped wearing 100 years ago.
Head On™️. Apply directly to forehead
Just because it's not pharmaceutical doesn't mean it can't help. I've not used this, but I frequently use tiger balm which I find really affective.
There was a Pet Rock when I was a kid.
These were sold tongue in cheek though. People who bought them got the joke. No one who bought them did so because they were marketed as something else.
I don't know about famous but it was out there.
Back in the early/mid 00's there was a fuel saver module pimped over TV and the internet. You plugged it in your car to get more HP and better fuel mileage. It was just fancy marketing. All it did was trick your intake air temperature sensor into thinking the air was colder.
I don't know if organic food is a scam per se but it is more expensive where I live. Assuming it is better then it's just another reminder that if your low income, you can't have it.
Ah good one. We have had a TV programma discovering that the same flowers were sold organic (expensive) and cheap. Came from the same source (and was indeed organic)
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All those male “enhancement” pills. Am I the only one that hates the Nugenix commercials where they talk about the pill and towards the end it’s mentioned…And she’ll like it too !” And has a woman shyly looking down at the ground and smiling. Seriously? We can have male enhancement pills all over the place but God forbid if a woman wants oral contraception or an abortion pill ! And what’s with making that girl look so submissive! I hate this commercial with a bloody passion!” !
I don't know if organic food is a scam per se but it is more expensive where I live. Assuming it is better then it's just another reminder that if your low income, you can't have it.
Ah good one. We have had a TV programma discovering that the same flowers were sold organic (expensive) and cheap. Came from the same source (and was indeed organic)
Load More Replies... All those male “enhancement” pills. Am I the only one that hates the Nugenix commercials where they talk about the pill and towards the end it’s mentioned…And she’ll like it too !” And has a woman shyly looking down at the ground and smiling. Seriously? We can have male enhancement pills all over the place but God forbid if a woman wants oral contraception or an abortion pill ! And what’s with making that girl look so submissive! I hate this commercial with a bloody passion!” !
