Companies measure their success through the sales they have made. At the end of the day, all they care about are the numbers. So sometimes, to achieve tremendous successes, companies resort to unfair tactics and mislead their consumers regarding their products. They depict a deceptive image of the products, but the marketing is so on-point that the consumers are easily deceived. We bring you 10 things invented by companies to increase sales.

1 Healthy teeth are supposed to be extremely white. This is completely unnatural and the whiteness of teeth has no relation to their health.

All ad campaigns for mouth hygiene products come with an emphasis on sparkling-white teeth. It implies that the whiter the teeth, the healthier they are. Toothpaste, mouthwashes, toothbrushes, etc., all stick to the same strategy. But in reality, teeth are not actually supposed to be perfectly white.

The color of teeth depends on the person’s age and DNA traits. Also, the food consumed by the person, along with other lifestyle choices, play a vital role in determining the present color of their teeth. With age, the enamel of the teeth starts to wear exposing the under layers of the teeth. This also makes teeth turn yellow. So, all the advertisements portraying white, sparkly teeth are just marketing stunts. (source)

2 Printers issue the out-of-ink warning message way before they are actually out. In some cases, 40% of the cartridge was still full of ink when the message was displayed. The companies invented this tactic to make people buy more ink. 

Many of us must have had this experience. The printer tells that the cartridge is about to run dry and we keep on dismissing the warning. But miraculously, the printer keeps on working for weeks after the warning was shown. Well, this is another stunt by big companies to make consumers buy more.

PC World carried out a study to test this particular issue. They studied printers from the four top brands: Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, and Kodak. They found that these printers issued the low-ink warning when the cartridges were still filled with at least 40% of the ink. The quantity of leftover ink, after the warning, ranged from 8% in an Epson-brand cartridge to as high as 45% in a cartridge for a Canon printer. The PC World team also encountered a problem that the printers would stop working entirely after the warning and would resume only after the cartridge has been replaced.

Printer ink is costly and such stunts by companies are costing a fortune for consumers. Although printers have become more efficient now, this still remains an issue. (source)

3 The eye-whitening industry is booming by inventing a fad that discolored eyes make people look less attractive than their white-eyed peers. But in majority cases, bleaching eyes does more harm than good.

Bleaching is a new trend in the beauty industry, and the industry is now targeting people’s eyeballs! We all suffer from the occasional redness, yellowness, or discoloration of our eyes. This might be due to pollution, stress, or some other lifestyle choices. The beauty industry has now started a trend that discolored eyes look less attractive and are a negative factor when it comes to the beauty of the face. Also, many people associate the whiteness of eyes with health. This is not true.

To get sparkling-white eyeballs, consumers are resorting to eye-bleaching procedures. Dr. J.P. Dunn, a Korean eye surgeon who handles such issues, says that bleaching eyes is a risky business and may not be rewarding. He had patients who, after bleaching, came to him for corrective procedures. They suffer from extreme itching or sometimes even eye ulcers. In some cases, there is a risk that it might even lead to blindness. (1, 2)

4 Cosmetic companies are making the youth believe that their bone structure is wrong and are selling billions of dollars of contouring products so that women can fix their face. 

We are all born with unique bone structures. There is no right or wrong. But beauty brands today have started pointing out that we all have wrong bone structures, and we need to use contouring procedures to correct them through make-up to look our best.

The youth are impacted the most by such ridiculous assertions by companies. Young people are quite conscious of their appearances and spend a lot of money and time on beauty products. What they don’t realize is that these beauty companies are just spreading such unrealistic declarations for their own benefit.

The bronzer market is expected to reach $2.83 billion by 2020. Brands such as Coty, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, LVMH, and Shiseido hold the majority of the beauty market. (1, 2)

5 Postum, a coffee substitute, pulled a promotional stunt by claiming that coffee was bad for health. But experts found no scientific evidence behind these claims. 

C.W. Post introduced a new product in the market, called “Postum” in the 1900s. Marketed as a coffee alternative, it was said to be caffeine-free. Moreover, the founder of the product became a millionaire by saying that coffee is unhealthy. Mark Pendergrast, the author of Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World says, “The Postum advertisers had all kinds of pseudoscientific reasons that you should stay away from coffee.” They also spread fallacies that coffee leads to digestion problems, nerve issues, and heart and kidney problems.

Moreover, Postum advertised coffee as the reason behind stunted growth in kids if they drink it. These false accusations spread like wildfire, and Americans made sure that their kids never touch coffee. The irony is that these advertisements and statements hold no scientific evidence! (source)