Indiana United States
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January 7, 2007
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Quote: Originally posted by sirbrad on Mar 5, 2008
At this rate no taxes are going to matter to me. It is so much money I don't really care. However as I already said I am a lump sum guy, but would take the annuity at this level with no complaints if I had to. If it is not misleading why don't they post "after taxes" estimate? Because it IS misleading that is why.
I've already resolved that it's not misleading. Also, they don't post the after taxes estimate because they would need to list 50 of them, 1 for each state that plays that game.
Wandering Aimlessly United States
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November 5, 2005
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Before I sign off tonight, I just want to apologize to the board for one of the sentences in my last post. I don't even like the word "moron" because we all make stupid mistakes. My only point was that you can bring up a million cases of "deceptive" advertising. Everytime they show a commercial for junk food, should they warn people that if you eat too much you'll get fat or have a heart attack?
Yes, there's a lot of deceptive advertising. It's not just the advertising, but sometimes the people who sell things. It's cost me a lot of money, not only as a consumer, but as a person who refused to lie to people. I've mentioned this many times in the past, so I don't think I need to repeat it. Last year I forfeited thousands of dollars because I felt a product wasn't marketed honestly.
Anyway, I'm such a strong consumer advocate that I've spent a lot of my life protecting people from the very thing we're talking about, but this board has become so negative that I've started to become defensive.
NY United States
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October 16, 2005
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Quote: Originally posted by justxploring on Mar 5, 2008
KY Floyd writes:if all they advertise is "at least $5000 for any trade" then the advertising is false and misleading.
I usually would be the last person to defend a car dealership, but I disagree with you that this is false advertising. Someone would have to be a complete moron to think an old beater that isn't even running is worth a trade-in value of $5,000. Still, wouldn't it be nice if truth in advertising and truth in lending were really enforced? From my personal experience in sales, many people don't want to be educated. They just want a new car, a new home, new furniture, a new credit card, and they don't want to hear about the jam they'll be in 2 years from now. In 1996 I got my first retail sales job in FL selling cars. I was very green too. One day I tried explaining to a couple that they were very upside down and that the new interest rate would put them in even a worse situation. They left and went up the street and bought a car. Why they came back and rubbed it in my face will always be a mystery, but they apparently didn't appreciate my integrity. Sometimes it's hard to be honest because people don't appreciate it. It's sort of like politics! LOL People often vote for the guys who talk the talk and have the most charisma.
In general, what makes an ad false or misleading is the claims that are made, not how believable or unbelieveable they are. Consumers are expected to have general knowledge, so an advertiser doesn't need to have disclaimers about things that are (or should be) general knowledge. Consumers aren't expected to have more specialized knowledge, so advertisers do have to provide information on some of those things. Just because most people here know about annuity values doesn't mean that's common knowledge. I'm sure we've all heard car dealer ads that devote 150 clearly spoken words to advertising their great deals, and then rattle off 300 nearly uninteligible words with the required disclaimers. That there isn't enough manpower to thoroughly enforce the laws means that advertisers often get away with false or misleading ads, not that those ads aren't misleading.
Since you've worked in retail sales I'm sure you're familiar with bait and switch advertising. That's exactly what ads for an annuity prize are if the ads don't tell you it's the annuity value, or disclose the cash payment.
Come on down to Crazy Florida's Big A$$ Lottery Deals!
We're giving away 30 milliondollars!
That's right!30 milliondollars!
"Hi, welcome to Crazy Florida's. What's that? Oh, well we don't actually have $30 million to give you, but we can give you $15 million, or you can get $1 million now and another one million each year for the next 29 years."
Of course I can't be sure what the couple who bought the car at a different dealer were thinking, but I'll make a guess. No matter how nicely you phrased it, your explanation told them that buying a car from you would be a stupid idea, and it was bad because of their credit situation. The salesperson at the other dealership told them their credit was good enough that they could buy (notice I don't say "afford") the car that they wanted. Why wouldn't they come back and show you that they could buy it? Sometimes the problem with pointing out the downside of a customer's plan is that you're also telling them they've made a mistake or they're wrong.
NY United States
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October 16, 2005
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Quote: Originally posted by pacattack05 on Mar 5, 2008
I find it rather interesting how some people can be blinded by their so called knowledge of the real world. They think that there is nothing going on behind closed doors and everything is honky dory.
Of course it's MEANT to be misleading. My opinion is that the real issue here is not whether people are so dumb as to know the true value amount they get is the net and not the gross, but because these advertisers are getting away with it, and they don't like it.
Just like the dealership that says 99$ a month. But they don't mention that it's only for 3 months or so. Then it goes to the regular rate of whatever. That's not deception?
People might come up with a defense that since the lottery really discloses the real amount, if only you read the fine print, well I disagree there too.
If the lottery officials know that there will be a significant group out there who will comply with the subliminal approches in ads, then they'll use it to make more money. You doubt me? Well here's an example:
To this day, advertisers use 2,999.99 as an amount instead of 3000 bucks...Why? because subconciously 2,999.99 looks better. We all know it's really 3000 bucks, but the adverstisers know something else. They wouldn't to this day be using that kind of strategy if it wasn't working. The human brain, with all it's accomplishments, can still be fooled.
So yes, in my opinion, it is misleading, just like the whole odds thingy on another thread.
The Florida fantasy five has about 376 thousand possibilities. If I buy a thousand QPs, I'll have a 1:376 chance of winning. But that is misleading. Even though 1:376 looks good, there are still 375,000 other possibilities that can come out. Misleading.
Not telling you the rules, or heavily promoting one thing while not promoting the rules is misleading.
If you don't understand the rules you haven't been mislead. The number of possible outcomes that result in losing is meaningless without knowing how many outcomes result in winning, because odds are based on the ratio of the two numbers.
1. If you flip a coin and need heads to win there's only one possible result that will cause you to lose, but there's a 50% chance of losing.
2. If you draw a random card from a normal deck and you need a red card to win there are 26 possible results that will cause you to lose, but that's still the same 50% chance of losing.
3. Play all of the even numbers in P4 and there are 5000 odd numbers that will result in losing, but there's still only a 50% chance of losing.
1 losing combination, or 5000 losing combinations, but each game gives you a 50% chance to win. If you think that only having 1 losing outcome gives you a better chance of winning you haven't been mislead; you're just wrong. No matter how you express the odds, as long as the numbers are right there's nothing misleading about it. Whether or not somebody undertands what the numbers mean is a different matter.
Rhode Island United States
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October 28, 2007
439 Posts
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sometimes one cannot advertise everything in one shot (because of time, space, cost constraints etc)so they advertise the most outstanding feature of the deal...if you want to get into the deal (new car, mortgage, lottery) you have the responsability to get informed or ask for all the details involved and how it works...
For the ones that say false advertising...it is not..it is legally correct but of course the fine print will reveal all the other details...so the advertiser will not go ahead and explain every time how the annuity jackpot works or how the $99 a month works......of course when it comes to lottery many people dont really care cause at the end it's all gravy anyway...
Zeta Reticuli Star System United States
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January 17, 2006
11,788 Posts
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Good example of the$30 million, Floyd.
_________________
This discssion brings the infamour Yugo automobile to mind. For those of you too young to know the story, Yugoslavia was selling a car in the U.S. called the Yugo- the first models had no reverse on them.
As time went on, Yugo got more and more aggressive with their advertising, to the point where they were advertising free service for life, all you do is pay for oil changes- and then they said they'd pay for the oil changes, too.
Sounded like a great deal, but they knew they were pulling out of the U.S.
So- flase advertising? Free maintainence for life- knowing "life" would be the next few months? You betcha.
Those who run the lotteries love it when players look for consistency in something that's designed not to have any. So many systems, so many theories, so few jackpot winners.
There is one and only one 'proven' system, and that is to book the action. No matter the game, let the players pick their own losers.
I dont know where United States
Member #1,702
June 18, 2003
103 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by time*treat on Mar 5, 2008
What you do with that kind of money, before you get to the investment stage, is park it in a special program the banks have called CDARS (pronounced "cedars"). What they do is in effect spread your money out into $100K blocks across many banks, but to you it looks and acts like one account. You aren't, in that case, required to physically go to every bank and open those accounts. more info.
The largest (in terms of the amounts you can put in) option is U.S. treasury notes & bonds. Treasury paper can be sold before maturity, so your money isn't really tied up for the 2 to 10 year lifetime of the note unless you want it to be.
I like CDARS......... even that article is about 4 years old
Idaho United States
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November 21, 2007
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Quote: Originally posted by time*treat on Mar 5, 2008
What you do with that kind of money, before you get to the investment stage, is park it in a special program the banks have called CDARS (pronounced "cedars"). What they do is in effect spread your money out into $100K blocks across many banks, but to you it looks and acts like one account. You aren't, in that case, required to physically go to every bank and open those accounts. more info.
The largest (in terms of the amounts you can put in) option is U.S. treasury notes & bonds. Treasury paper can be sold before maturity, so your money isn't really tied up for the 2 to 10 year lifetime of the note unless you want it to be.
I've actually never heard of that term or program before. Thank you for the link time*treat! I think I will bookmark that page.
San Diego, CA United States
Member #58,384
February 12, 2008
335 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by benmas on Mar 6, 2008
sometimes one cannot advertise everything in one shot (because of time, space, cost constraints etc)so they advertise the most outstanding feature of the deal...if you want to get into the deal (new car, mortgage, lottery) you have the responsability to get informed or ask for all the details involved and how it works...
For the ones that say false advertising...it is not..it is legally correct but of course the fine print will reveal all the other details...so the advertiser will not go ahead and explain every time how the annuity jackpot works or how the $99 a month works......of course when it comes to lottery many people dont really care cause at the end it's all gravy anyway...
Advertising that the jackpot will pay the annuity amount without stating the number of years in bold print next to the dollar amount is equivalelent to a car dealer advertising that he will sell a Lamborghini Diablo without the engine. The time value of money is a basic premise. As is selling a car with an engine it. It is misleading not advertising the cash amount.
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by JWBlue on Mar 6, 2008
Advertising that the jackpot will pay the annuity amount without stating the number of years in bold print next to the dollar amount is equivalelent to a car dealer advertising that he will sell a Lamborghini Diablo without the engine. The time value of money is a basic premise. As is selling a car with an engine it. It is misleading not advertising the cash amount.
Car dealers do advertise cars the same way. Haven't you ever read "New cars,$200 down and $199 a month". The details like a big balloon payment after a couple of years and etc. are in the fine print or are only mentioned once you're committed to buy. It could be six or more years before you payoff the loan.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *