Saturday, October 24, 2009

.” Does this constitute lying?

2.A few years ago, there was a commercial on late-night TV for a vegetable chopper. The chopper had a clear plastic container with a metal lid. The lid had a plunger through the top that was attached to a sharp set of blades. The user puts a vegetable in the container, screws on the lid, and presses the plunger rapidly to cut the vegetable into pieces. The screen demonstration showed a hand putting a beautiful red tomato into the container of the chopper, attaching the top, and rapidly chopping the tomato into perfect pieces. During the demonstration, there was a voice-over saying, “This is a green tomato. It has been painted red. Do not try this with a ripe tomato. It will burst and send pieces all over the kitchen.” Does this constitute lying?
Answer:
Well, definitely misleading and not very nice!! But I guess adding a disclaimer technically gets them off the hook in the lying department. But, by my own personal standards--yes it's lying. I look at the intentions, and it is to mislead to sell more product--so in my opinion, they are lying.
Not if it really happened as you describe. Sounds like you tuned in late to a parody of an infomercial.
probably not, most people are smart enough to know those products don't work anyway.
"lying"? In an ethical sense? Or false advertisement, in a legal sense?

If there's full and fair disclosure, in a way that no consumer would be confused, then it's neither.

No comments:

Post a Comment

 
vc .net