The Great Toilet Paper Ripoff

Why does toilet paper need a commercial? Who isn’t buying this?

Unknown

Saturday I was out grocery shopping with my mother and she wanted to buy toilet paper. I buy my toilet paper at Costco (the home brand) but this isn’t good enough for Shirley who is a toilet paper connoisseur. It has to be Cashmere, Royale or Charmin – 2 ply of course (as is the Costco toilet paper that's not good enough to grace her bathroom). There were several different types of packages on sale – double rolls or triple rolls - and I was shocked to discover that not all toilet paper rolls are created equal.

Product packaging works like a charm to deceive because Shirley immediately thought that the triple roll package of Charmin was a better buy than the double roll package of Cashmere. She was going to buy it until I told her to check out the number of sheets per roll. Much to our surprise the double rolls of Cashmere had more sheets per roll than the triple rolls of Charmin. So the Charmin wasn’t a good buy at all. Shirley bought the Cashmere even though I still believe she should buy the Costco brand. After all, it’s all going down the toilet.

It seems that anything can be called a double roll or a triple roll. There are no standards that must be adhered to. This is just another case of deceptive product packaging designed to fool the consumer. Toilet paper manufacturers are all competing in the same marketplace and they’re always looking for a new hook. I guess softness is now passé and they’ve moved onto trying to show value with double and triple rolls. The bottom line is that the consumer has to really be diligent when it comes to product packaging. It’s designed to screw you, so beware!

Life is a lot like toilet paper. You’re either on a roll…or you’re taking shit from some asshole.

Unknown

Make someone smile today.

Geri

Why is Product Packaging So Deceiving?

When a package says “easy open” I end up using scissors, knife, hammer, gun and a light saber.

Thedailyquotes.com

I have a cranky knee that’s been behaving like a petulant child as of late. In light of the fact that I can’t use painkillers, I’ve been forced to seek alternatives. There are a myriad of topical creams and gels on the market that all promise to do the same thing and it’s just a matter of trial and error to see which one does or doesn’t work for you. After my very unscientific “clinical trials” I’ve settled on one that’s better than the rest (for me). I recently saw an advertisement for a new version of this topical painkiller saying that it was for “joint pain”, when all the while I thought it was for joint pain. And in fact on this new version, “For Join Pain” is emblazoned on the tube. When I was out shopping on Saturday I investigated this new “for joint pain” version. Upon reading the ingredients I discovered, much to my disgust, that the ingredients were IDENTICAL! In reality there are two versions of the same product in different packaging – one version says Original and the other says For Joint Pain. There is no reason for this other than to dupe the unsuspecting public and increase market share.

How many products have you seen with big advertising campaigns promoting “New and Improved”? I’d be willing to bet if you checked out the ingredients you’d find that in the vast majority of cases only the packaging is new and improved. I realize that advertising is fantasy but doesn’t there have to be some truth in product promotion? Why isn’t there a watchdog group monitoring these blatant attempts to mislead the public? And if there is such a group, they are certainly not doing their jobs.

If dogs don’t like your dog food the packaging doesn’t matter.

Stephen Denny

Make someone smile today.

Geri