You know those really annoying ads you see all the time on the web “One Rule for a Flat Stomach”, or “Teeth whitening for free discovered by a Mom”?  It’s incredible that something so simple, and in the latter case free, is showing up in paid ads all over the place.  The budget for this advertising must be impressive.  Have you ever wondered what these are all about?

I did, but refused to click on the silly things just on principle.  Crabby McSlacker did some great research for us all on the Flat Stomach ads – check out her post!

As you might guess, these ads are just amazingly well-funded scams.  Read the comments below her post too, some are very funny.  I like the “Bender Ball” one by NeverSayDiet, and “Dr J’s” comment on “dropped 50 pounds this week”.  However, “Tom Rooney” did the best one – search for “bat guano”.

So what about the Teeth Whitening one?  Well, yours truly did the research on that one for your edification and enjoyment.  The scam is that some Mom somewhere tried two free sample products (they give you the link to both – the actual products vary depending on which ad you click), and found that the combination of these whitened her teeth as good as expensive treatments from a dentist (which she couldn’t afford because she’s a single mom, unemployed, has only one leg, etc.)  The empathy factor goes off the scale on this one folks.  I guess they are hoping that nobody will remember that every so often, some Mom-chemist like this gets the bright idea to combine Ammonia and Bleach for a really extra-clean punch, produces Chlorine gas (whoa – who knew?), and ends up dead or in the hospital.

Anyhow, ranting aside, the scam is to get you to try free samples from two companies and presumably you’ll buy more, and at the very least will get on their mailing list.

This reminds me of the old commercials from the ’70s: “4 out of 5 Dentists agree”.  The funny thing is, half the time, the product they were selling had nothing to do with teeth.  I frequently use this same technique to add qualification to an opinion I have, so that people will believe me more easily.  I use “4 out of 5 Dentists agree”, and “Proctologist and wife both agree”.  I get mixed results – go figure.