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Many people get excited when they see something they want or need on sale, be it a new phone or a frozen pizza. And to the great joy of consumers, all sorts of things go on sale constantly. However, when they do, it’s important not to rush to the checkout counter without properly examining the offer first and this list will show you why.
Below you will find examples of deceptive marketing techniques that people have captured in stores and businesses that emphasize just how misleading marketing can be. Take a look at how companies might try to trick you into buying something, and consider this practice for when you go to a store that’s dotted with ‘SALE’ signs, even when there actually isn’t one.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
This Is A New Low, Even For Epson
So apparently the ink cartridges that come with this Epson printer are only for the "initial printing" (i.e. the test pages), so you have to buy new cartridges the moment you get the printer. WTF, Epson?
RELATED:
#2
Amazon Prime Video Doesn't Tell You If A Show Is Unavailable In Your Country Until After You Subscribe To Amazon Prime
#3
Starbucks At Laguardia Won't Let You Order A Coffee Without Installing Their App
Tempest 1 week ago
I hate having to download apps for everything nowadays. If your product is not a necessity to me, I’m going to straight out avoid buying from you if you force an app on me.
Debby Keir 1 week ago
and it's even worse if you are elderly and don't have a smartphone. Can't even pay for parking in the UK these days - you need an app, which is not supported by my clockwork phone.
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Kate Jones 1 week ago
It forces you to agree to getting emails and gives your private data to advertisers. If I go somewhere that requires an app i literally leave. I think I'm one of the few people who doesn't have social media and I'm almost never on my phone. I use my computer a lot but half the time i leave my phone in the car. I only use it for GPS and emergencies. But now everything needs an app. You can't even get it on your computer. It's like everything has to be done by phone- i'm so tired of that. I especially hate when they don't at least give you an option of text or email to verify yourself. I'm not thrilled about getting an email but at least I can access it without having to literally go get a different device.
Huddo's sister 1 week ago
I agree. I wanted to go back to a non-smartphone when I was forced to buy another because 3G was being switched off but because I moved to a country town, where good doctors are hard to come by, I use telehealth appointments a lot now, so prescriptions are sent electronically and won't open without a web link. I only got a smartphone in 2020 because I had been signing in to places during Covid by hand and a friend gave me a phone to be able to use the QR sign in.
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LynzCatastrophe 1 week ago
At this point it's impossible for me to leave my house without my phone. Since every-damn-thing needs an app now! I recently gave my job a hard time because since I've been hired (3 years ago) I've had to download 5 different apps for meetings we can't attend in person. Why couldn't we just have picked one and stuck with it throughout? Also, the place i work for has an app too.
Greg Novinski (Catonthekey) 1 week ago
Ummm I fly out of LGA a lot. I know this one there are two like tgat. You 100% can pay at the counter. That sign just tells you when your order is ready to grab.
Mason Kronol 1 week ago
I had to download the MLB app for our tickets last year. The first 2 tickets scanned but the third wouldn’t. The lady just let me through because we obviously looked legit and not like we were trying to scam our way in. We also had the same problem at a concert because my phone wouldn’t connect to the WiFi or 5G. Luckily I was able to go to the box office and have them printed out. What a pain in the a$&. I just downloaded the Seat Geek app for NBA. Fingers, toes and eyes crossed!
Timbob 1 week ago
It’s the public official with the noticeably larger bank account ! And excuse me for saying this, but if you’re foolish enough to pay Starbucks prices, you deserve the inconvenience.
brookeannsimmer 1 week ago
A public official has no involvement with how Starbucks operates, but I get that people love to dunk on the government, and there are lots of good reasons, but that makes no sense
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Gracie Mae 1 week ago
I don't do business with Starbucks, but any place like that dictating that I HAVE to download their app to use their business--gets zero business from me!
LJ williams 1 week ago
Where we just moved to this Little Caesars you have to order online only. I can live without them for quick lunch on the run.
Huddo's sister 1 week ago
I wouldn't be getting a coffee then, but is that the only coffee place there? I thought airports usually had multiple vendors.
Hugh Crawford 1 week ago
Not great, but it means they don't need to deal with exchange rates or turn away customers who don't have local currency. And they can devote all staff to preparing orders when it is busy.
Nowadays, it’s difficult to escape all of the information about goods and services. It seems omnipresent—on billboards while we’re driving to work, on TV while we’re watching our favorite shows, in pop-up ads while we’re scrolling on social media, and even in good old newspapers when we think we can escape the digital pressure that screens bring.
Whether we actively pay attention to what’s being advertised or not, chances are at least some of it sticks in our heads—especially when we catch a glimpse of a good deal, or something that seems too good to pass up. (Did an ad for some delicious food pop into your head? No? I guess it’s just me then.) Consequently, it can lead to us buying whatever it is that was advertised, sometimes even when we don’t really need it.
#4
Saved This To My Cart Yesterday But Decided To Wait Until Today To Buy It To Get A Sale Price On Amazon Prime Day
#5
The Fees On Ticketmaster Cost More Than My Tickets
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” And, well, it’s clear by looking at this list that the offerings are often presented in a very appealing, if somewhat deceptive, way.
But as long as the information provided in an ad, a billboard, or elsewhere is true, you can’t really say that a company did anything wrong by choosing a font that makes the number 8 look like a 0 from afar.
#6
Despite The Official Weight Limit Being 50lbs, These Spirit Self Service Kiosks Will Flag Anything Over 40lbs As Overweight And Require A $78 Additional Charge To Proceed
The only way to avoid this is to have your bag checked by a live employee who will follow the real 50lb limit.
#7
Ham And Eggs Are $8.99, But They've Outlined It To Look Like $0.99 From Afar
StrangeOne 1 week ago
Even close up, I have to really see that it's an 8. This should be illegal. Fraud.
#8
Bowlero - Default 22% Tip. Canceling Order Then Tries To Get Your Business By Giving The Option For No Tip. Then Asks Again To Confirm If You Are Cancelling Order
How is this manipulation not illegal? Time to go back to Cash Only.
While discussing the persuasion and deception in marketing in a piece for Forbes, best-selling author and speaker Nick Leighton pointed out that, from an ethical standpoint, the line between making a bold statement to influence the target audience and providing information that’s outright deceptive can be quite blurry.
But, according to Leighton, there is an easy way to check if your claim steps over the bounds of being ethical – you can ask yourself if the claim has the potential to harm the consumer, whether financially, physically, or emotionally. If the answer is yes, the expert advises carefully re-evaluating your message.
#9
Paying For A Subscription And Still Have To Sit Through 8 Min+ Of Ads
#10
The Way This Goal Has Extra Rings To Make The Goal Smaller. You Cant See It From The Front When Shooting The Basketball To Try And Win A Prize
#11
Amazon Prime Video Is Basically Back To Cable TV Now That We’re Getting Random Commercials In The Middle Of Movies
SolitaryIntrovert 1 week ago
Even worse, they will cut to a commercial in the middle of a sentence, or even a word.
Delving deeper into deceptive advertising, Nick Leighton suggested that there are seven red flags indicating unethical tactics in advertising. The first one is based on transparency and disclosure, or lack thereof.
“In many cases, it’s not what you say but what you don’t say that is deceptive,” the expert wrote, adding that sometimes, businesses or organizations choose to deliberately withhold important information in order to sway consumers.
#12
Dave & Busters Spin Game Landed On The 500 And It Only Gave Me 4 Tickets. Showed To Manager And Said It Needed To Be In The Middle
#13
This Is What Happens When You Price Everything At £4.99 Instead Of £5
#14
Grocery Store Price For Bay Leaves Is 16300% Higher Than The Farmers Market
The cheapest bay leaves the local Kroger had were $61.06/ounce. The farmer's market sells a higher quality for $5.99/pound ($0.37/ounce).
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 week ago (edited)
Get to know your local vendors and suppliers. Once Trump's tariffs kick in, they are going to be your best friends. I get my eggs from a woman who keeps chickens.
Next on the list of red flags are exaggerated claims or misleading language, followed by manipulative imagery, all of which show that if a service or a product seems too good to be true—be it in the description or the pictures—chances are that it is too good to be true.
“Always make sure the claims your company makes are accurate and easily verified to avoid any accusations of deceptive business practices,” Leighton wrote.
The rest of the red flags implying that the company might be using deceptive advertising, entail false comparisons, hidden fees, bait-and-switch, false customer reviews, and misused statistics or cherry-picked data that backs the company’s claims of their products or services.
#15
The Price Of My Burger King Meal Got More Expensive As I Was Checking Out
#16
Hotel Charging Cable That Requires You To Register An Account And Sign In With The Qr Code In Order To Work. It Gives You A 5-Minute Free Trial And Then Requires A Fee Per Hour Of Use
#17
My New Truck Requires A $15/Mo Data Plan To Use Features My Previous Model Did For Free (Maps, Basic Voice Commands, Text To Voice Messages)
According to Nick Leighton, fixing the damage caused by misinformation and deception can be a difficult task, bearing in mind that people already aren’t that fond of ads—at least the digital kind—as it is.
Seeking to minimize the number of ads they are forced to sit through, many people use ad blockers, and the main reason for doing so, according to research carried out by HubSpot, is that ads are annoying and intrusive.
Other reasons why people reportedly dislike ads (the ones on their screens, at least) include their disruption, security concerns, reduced bandwidth use, offensive or inappropriate content, and privacy concerns.
#18
Semi Deceptive Marketing
It's clear what they are offering once you read it fully. I love and hate this in ways that I'll just not say.
#19
So I Am Now Officially Never Buying A Vegas Editing Software Again. The Developers Have Removed Vegas Pro Edit 15 For Purchase On Steam And Are Now Revoking Licenses For The Software
I'm now out $150 and no longer have an editing software. Very cool!
#20
Panera Bread Increases Food Price By 25% When You Switch To Delivery - After Redeeming "No Fees" Delivery
#21
$1 Kids Meal? Wow That's A Good D-...oh Wait
#22
Uber Eats “Taxes & Other Fees” Strikes Again
#23
So, I Was Helping Mum To Use Her Printer And This Comes Out...an Advert...that Used Her Printer Ink To Make It
#24
$1 Slices... *squints* Oh
#25
Great Sale
#26
These Shoes Have A Texture *printed* Onto Them. There Is No Actual Texture
#27
Forcing Scanning Qr Codes To See Prices At The Gas Station?
#28
The Fortune In These Fortune Cookies
#29
"Sale" Pricing
#30
I Walked In, Ordered The Meatball Footlong, And Paid Almost 10 Dollars For It
Apparently I have to order it “as is” or else it’s full price. I was told this after choosing provolone and Italian herbs and cheese, both of which aren’t allowed.
#31
This Giant Olympic Countdown Banner During The Entire Movie
#32
“…not My Prob,” Some Target Employee, Probably
#33
I Went To Get My Mail And This Was The First Thing I Saw
#34
Our Company Has Received Numerous Boxes Of Nothing Inclosed But A Post Card And Paper Confetti
#35
This Ad Increased The Price
Binny Tutera 1 week ago
I see this a lot. Also, they promote a sale and it's literally like 3 cents!
#36
Tried To Buy An Economy Flight For $500, Kept Running Into An Error And The Price Eventually Skyrocketed To More Than Premium Economy
Tobias Reaper 1 week ago
this is because of the error if this happens it thinks the tickets are in high demand so jacks up the prices it happens if you keep checking the price often
#37
Always Read The Fine Print. Found In Hollywood, Los Angeles Ca
CC McSniggles 1 week ago
I hate paid parking areas. If the flat (min) rate is $15, then it wouldn't matter what any rate below $15 is, regardless of how little/long you've parked for. I once got charged $30 for pulling into the lot, looking at the parking rate, and leaving to find a cheaper lot. There was no rate posted outside, so you had to enter to see it. I never parked or got out of the car.
#38
Making All Four Screens Smaller To Feature A Massive Logo
#39
Ads On The Keyboard
Add New Image
What do you think ?
JohnGalt 1 week ago (edited)
Subscription BS just needs to stop. I get the subscription model for services like Netflix, or Spotify, but subscriptions for printer ink, car features, software, games, etc is just over the top. Edit: Just create a better product, and if I find that it is worth my money, I will purchase it. Don't force me to continually pay for a product that adds no real value over time.
WindySwede 1 week ago
f YES! its like the don't want pandas here anymore! 🤢😵
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Birb 1 week ago
Biggest scam. Paying BP to see articles without ads. Not a fat chance in hell im gonna buy BP premium
Papa 1 week ago
Not just without ads. Many articles containing list that have been shortened now require a subscription to see the rest of the list.
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Another Panda 1 week ago
We the consumers need to stop buying this BS. Simply stop buying it, then tell the corporations why. Most of this is just stuff we can live without long enough for them to get the message.
Lady Lava 1 week ago (edited)
Et tu, BoredPanda...? With the new premium nonsense, that wants you get a paid subscription to read all entries in an article... 😡 (Funnily enough not for this article though.) BP is a great time killer, but most of the content is not even original, but put together from some Reddit threat. I'm not going to pay for that.
Wintermute 1 week ago
Don't worry, it'll all be trickling down any time now. Aaaaaannnny time now...
Philly Bob 1 week ago
Another good one: Bacon - 1 lb - $4.39 On sale" Buy one, Get one free - $7.49 to buy one. Yeah, did you think you were getting 2 lbs of bacon for $4.39?
LynzCatastrophe 1 week ago
I wonder if Bored Panda will see the irony of posting this article while asking me to subscribe so I can view ad-free. Don't you have enough of my information?!
Steve Robert 1 week ago
Just don't do business with these companies that think they are so clever. After the last election, I know half the people are dumb enough to fall for this c**p. But half the people are smart enough to stay away.
Ron Man 1 week ago
Most of these aren't deceptive. Pay attention when you're buying something. Spend 5 minutes to think about something. If it's retail ask questions before you buy. This is basic consumerism, and if you're reading this article you likely are in a capitalist country and need to understand how to be a consumer. Some of these are definitely shady, like putting real prices in outlines that look like different prices. But most of these I feel are people who don't understand that they actually need to think about how they spend their money and what they are getting for their money.
Apatheist Account2 1 week ago
Complain about all of these. If they display a price, pay that, and nothing more.
JohnGalt 1 week ago (edited)
Subscription BS just needs to stop. I get the subscription model for services like Netflix, or Spotify, but subscriptions for printer ink, car features, software, games, etc is just over the top. Edit: Just create a better product, and if I find that it is worth my money, I will purchase it. Don't force me to continually pay for a product that adds no real value over time.
WindySwede 1 week ago
f YES! its like the don't want pandas here anymore! 🤢😵
Load More Replies... Birb 1 week ago
Biggest scam. Paying BP to see articles without ads. Not a fat chance in hell im gonna buy BP premium
Papa 1 week ago
Not just without ads. Many articles containing list that have been shortened now require a subscription to see the rest of the list.
Load More Replies... Another Panda 1 week ago
We the consumers need to stop buying this BS. Simply stop buying it, then tell the corporations why. Most of this is just stuff we can live without long enough for them to get the message.
Lady Lava 1 week ago (edited)
Et tu, BoredPanda...? With the new premium nonsense, that wants you get a paid subscription to read all entries in an article... 😡 (Funnily enough not for this article though.) BP is a great time killer, but most of the content is not even original, but put together from some Reddit threat. I'm not going to pay for that.
Wintermute 1 week ago
Don't worry, it'll all be trickling down any time now. Aaaaaannnny time now...
Philly Bob 1 week ago
Another good one: Bacon - 1 lb - $4.39 On sale" Buy one, Get one free - $7.49 to buy one. Yeah, did you think you were getting 2 lbs of bacon for $4.39?
LynzCatastrophe 1 week ago
I wonder if Bored Panda will see the irony of posting this article while asking me to subscribe so I can view ad-free. Don't you have enough of my information?!
Steve Robert 1 week ago
Just don't do business with these companies that think they are so clever. After the last election, I know half the people are dumb enough to fall for this c**p. But half the people are smart enough to stay away.
Ron Man 1 week ago
Most of these aren't deceptive. Pay attention when you're buying something. Spend 5 minutes to think about something. If it's retail ask questions before you buy. This is basic consumerism, and if you're reading this article you likely are in a capitalist country and need to understand how to be a consumer. Some of these are definitely shady, like putting real prices in outlines that look like different prices. But most of these I feel are people who don't understand that they actually need to think about how they spend their money and what they are getting for their money.
Apatheist Account2 1 week ago
Complain about all of these. If they display a price, pay that, and nothing more.
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