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>> Hmm. Never mind that, at least in the US, this is illegal as hell, if
>> someone decides to sue you on the basis that you made the claim, but
>> its **not actually true**.
>
> Oh usually the exact thing they claim is 100% true, they just word it
> very cleverly to avoid it being illegal, but also to make it sound as
> good as possible (usually with creative uses of font sizes and colours).
>
> Common things are to do studies yourself on very small samples, then
> claim your product is preferred by the majority of people. Or to find
> some small magazine to do a test with your product (of course giving
> them lots of free samples), then claiming your product is the best
> according to the magazine (of course the "best" bit is in massive font
> size with the details being in 1pt).
Or to say one thing, which is technically true, but worded so as to
*imply* something quite different, which isn't true.
My favourit one is price comparison websites. "95% of our customers
saved money by switching to us!" What, you mean 5% of people DIDN'T save
any money and yet still switched?! You have some pretty stupid
customers. :-P
Of course, if you just listen to it without thinking too much, it
*sounds* like a great company. Until you realise why that statistic is
there; people come, check the price, and if it's lower they sign up. So
their customers are *by definition* the people who happen to save money.
Not too surprising that they all saved money then, eh?
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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