As consumers, we’re entitled to some fundamental rights. For one, we must have access to essential information on every product. We’re also not supposed to be fooled into buying something we believed to be completely different. But as it happens with any other set of rules, consumer protection rules can be twisted, turned around, and even ignored.
The products on our list look just like any other product you can find at the store. However, they are dishonestly designed enough to make you angry—more so if you’re the one buying them. If not, though, these cunning packaging designs will probably make you laugh!
This Super Rope Is Not So Super After All
You’re at the store, and the picture of a man climbing a mountain gets your attention. As an amateur mountain climber yourself, you decide to take the rope home with you. But when you open the package, you discover that the rope you’ve just bought is actually “not suitable for climbing.”
But how were you supposed to know that? And why would this company use the picture of a man climbing a mountain to sell a rope specifically designed not to do so? It seems like their whole business model is all about selling low-grade rope to people thinking they’re buying some high-quality mountain climbing gear. Oh, the nerve!
Is This Even Legal?
A buyer could not believe his luck when he saw this package of sausage rolls! He could get 12 delicious rolls to take home and enjoy “hot or cold” for a great price. Sadly, these sausage rolls went from promising to deceitful in just a couple of seconds.
When the buyer took a second look, he saw the revealing asterisk. And guess what? You need to cut your store-bought rolls into multiple pieces to make for the 12 advertised rolls! That’s not only misleading but also absurd! Why not say the box contains 48 sausage rolls? You can always cut something into smaller and smaller halves.
Sponsored By Tinder
Isn’t it funny when “real-life” mimics social media? Just take a look at this hilariously packed frozen pizza. Doesn’t it remind you of some Tinder pictures you’ve seen before? The trick is obvious. You promote nothing but the best part of something, so people are forced to find out about the negative part after they’ve already committed to it.
It’s a recipe for utter disappointment, but it works with pizzas as good as it does with Tinder. You think you’re getting a whole bunch of pepperoni for £2 worth, but you’re merely going to be forced to deal with all that extra unwanted stale cheese.
Is This Box Of Crayons For The Color Blind?
There are plenty of useless products out there, but this misleading box of crayons may be our #1 pick. For some inexplicable reason, this set of 64 crayons includes nothing but orange ones. It begs the question: Why on Earth would someone do this?
We don’t know much about crayon production, but we firmly believe that orange crayons cost as much as a red, green, or brown one to be made. So, why have they done this? Are they trolling their customers because they’re bored? Well, at least that’s enough orange crayons to last you a lifetime!
Percentage Terrorists
Percentages can be fun and versatile. For instance, we’d be correct in saying we are 100% human, but we would also be right to claim that we are 60% water. While both numbers add up to an impossible 160%, nobody can accuse us of being technically wrong.
Just look at these clever juice sellers. They’re marketing technically 100% juice product because they’ve decided to call it that. But in reality, there’s only 27% juice in the recipe. The rest is a likely combination of much-cheaper, less-healthy ingredients. We guess Math is just like the Force. You can use it for humanity’s good or go full Darth Vader with it.
Dressed To Impress
It’s a basic rule of fashion: If there’s something you don’t like about your body, you should probably think of ways to conceal or enhance it. But while the fashion world can help each of us look better in public, it can also do a lot for this Asian company selling shrimp.
All it took was a red line to make these shrimps go from a fashion disaster to a red-carpet look. And don’t they look delicious in their cautiously designed package? At least until you “undress” them and reveal the shrimp’s true nature!
10% Honest Is Not Good Enough
While extremely common in Europe, especially in the South, olive oil can be a delicacy in America. Since olive trees are mostly found in the Mediterranean Basin, olive oil can be somewhat expensive in the US, and these cunning “olive oil” sellers are well aware of that.
Trying to make some money by selling low-grade olive oil, they’ve had the nerve of marketing 90% refined sunflower oil as “extra virgin olive oil”! Saying this product is olive oil is shocking enough, but going as far as calling it extra virgin? That’s borderline criminal!
Gluten-Free Gluten Cookie
Alright, now we’re getting into bizarre territory. This chocolate cookie was named “Gluten-Free” despite the fact it contains gluten. Why someone would do this is inexplicable. Maybe the cookie makers were trying to get viral on social media.
This would be like calling your old used ’90s car “Ferrari” or “Lamborghini,” hoping it would sell better in the used car market. The name would draw possible buyers, but they wouldn’t take too long to realize they weren’t looking at a luxurious sports car, wouldn’t they? This with-and-without gluten cookie is a similarly senseless mess.
Size Is (Not) Subjective
Size doesn’t always matter, but it is important when it comes to food products. By getting an extra cookie for the same price, you’ll be adding one more cookie to your life. That’s great! The same applies to chips, like these sour cream and onion-flavored Lays.
But imagine our surprise when we saw these two bags of chips. At first glance, you’d assume the bag on the right is bigger because, you know, size isn’t subjective? But in Lays’s crazy twisted world, smaller packages can be branded as the “new bigger size.” They’re laughing at every consumer’s intelligence with this offensive business tactic.
Do It For The Trend
We all have that one friend who always dresses according to the latest trend but doesn’t understand what it’s really about. This product is like the brownie version of such a friend. You see, the packaging says, “yes, we’re hip and current,” but the back is screaming, “we don’t know what we’re doing!”
And if you look closely, you can even relate to the brutal honesty this cunning company is using to describe their vile business tactics. That is if you’re not buying because if you are, you got to get mad at them! Imagine if a person who cannot eat gluten for medical reasons happens to take this home.
Bad Liars
While most packages on our list are truly misleading, using dishonest tactics to fool the consumers, some companies are so bad at lying they get caught immediately. These watermelon sellers are a great example. Their product is branded as “seedless watermelon,” which probably makes it a little bit more expensive.
However, it’s so revealingly not seedless that it can only make us laugh! Let’s give these guys a break, though. After all the shocking packages we’ve seen today, this seems like the least of our consumer problems. And, seedless or not, that watermelon certainly looks tasty and juicy.
A House Full Of Nothing
Event promoters know the drill: If there aren’t many people attending one of your parties, you just need to take a picture that makes it look like you have a full house in there! This box of chocolate loukoumi—a starch and sugar-based Greek/Turkish sweet—uses that same strategy to fool its customers and turn a profit.
Looking at the closed box, you’d think there are more than three sweets in there! But the whole content was strategically placed to give you that wrong impression. You’ll need a lot more than three chocolate loukoumi to get through the rage.
This Is Why You Always Take a Peek Inside
After a hard day’s work, a hungry man decided to buy the biggest hot dog he could find. He was given a hot dog in a huge package and thought, “Wow, this is just what I needed.” But as he got home and started eating, he realized his hot dog was, by all means, an underachiever!
This tiny hot dog is living life like a single man in a 7-bedroom mansion: There’s so much space in there that it can get kind of sad. Suddenly, the words “prolong deliciousness” sound less like a promo and more like a customer’s complaint.
A Window Of Opportunity
We get it. Owning a chocolate company can be an everlasting struggle. The competition is way too fierce, and historical brands like Poland’s Krakowski Kredens can have a rough time staying afloat in today’s market. But is doing THAT going to get them any new clients?
This chocolate would make for an offensive gift, as it promises way more than it offers. By looking at it, you’d think there’s dry fruit all over the chocolate bar. But that’s hardly the case. The guys from Krakowski Kredens have conveniently decided to put all the fruit in the package’s tiny peephole. They saw a window of opportunity, and they took it.
Don’t Miss The Small Letters!
LSD, King Cobra venom, and scorpion venom are considered the three most expensive liquids in the world. But why don’t we go ahead and add this bottled water to the top of the list? Featuring a misleading “please enjoy” message, this water bottle costs a shocking $4 to anyone thirsty enough not to read the small letters.
As if the price wasn’t insulting enough, the package is designed to fool you. With a big “Enjoy,” you may even think at first glance that this water is free. If this is not a blatant scam, then we don’t know what it is!
Cereal Killer
Have you ever had one of those moody mornings wherein you don’t trust your box of cereals? Well, you would if you happened to be into Kellogg’s Two Scoops Raisin Bran. A raisin fan decided to work hard to separate all the raisin in the box of cereals, only to uncover a daunting truth.
It turns out even trusted brands like Kellogg’s like to package their products misleadingly. The picture and the title both promise two full scoops of raisins in there. But the number of actual raisins is pretty disappointing.
Santa Bunny
This isn’t at all the most misleading product on our list, but it might be the funniest! You’re getting all the chocolate you’d expect from the package, so that’s fine, at least. What you’re not getting is the right holiday. It turns out Santa Claus is, in fact, the Easter bunny!
While this is a good one to laugh at, it also kind of makes you wonder: is this company re-using all the old chocolate that was leftover from Easter? If so, there’s a good chance it will not taste very good.
A Babushka Inspired Box
Direct marketing is a controversial business model. But direct marketing companies can go even further in their relentless pursuit of profit. Just take the case of Proactiv Solution, an American brand of skin-care products. You think the tube was going to fit the box perfectly, but it’s actually a lot smaller than you’d assume.
Stranded in a box within a box, this tiny tube of Proactiv will make you feel like you paid full price for one-quarter of the product. The worst part is that they’re not even trying to hide their vicious business tactic. You can’t even shake the box to check before buying due to its packaging!
Don’t Be Fooled By Amaretti Cookies
Isn’t it fun when you overpack a gift and force someone to go through a whole bunch of boxes to get to a tiny present? That’s a classic holiday/anniversary prank. But when the same happens with a product you’ve just bought, it is for some reason not funny at all.
A great example is this box of Amaretti Cookies. Not only is the plurality of the name misleading, but the size of the box is shockingly over the top. What you get from buying this monstrous package is, in the end, one ridiculously tiny cake. What a scam!
Precision is Overrated
We expect the products we see at the store to be exact. They have to display accurate information regarding size, ingredients, or price. That’s the only way we can trust them as consumers. But after seeing this picture, will we ever be able to believe a package again?
It turns out these identical cans of tomato soup don’t really care about accuracy, numbers, or basic math. It’s like seeing two identical twins, but one’s saying he’s 10% better-looking. That makes as much sense as these mysteriously similar but also mysteriously “different” cans of soup.
No Merry Xmas For You, Cadbury!
Rage-inducing packaging designs are not just bad for us as consumers. They can also be hurtful for us as parents, friends, and lovers. When a man decided to buy a bunch of chocolate selection packs for Christmas, how was he supposed to know that his gift came with an unadvertised dose of disappointment?
There’s no way he could because the packs were so misleadingly boxed. By looking at the package’s design, you’d assume there’s at least twice the number of chocolate bars in it! Next Christmas, Cadbury isn’t getting any gifts from Santa. They deserve charcoal for their demeanor.
A Cup Of Gummies? No, Just Gummies And A Cup
Childhood is an age of play and innocence, but there’s nothing innocent about this kid-oriented product. For a little over $3, a respectable amount, a buyer thought he was getting a cup full of gummies for his son. Seemed about right... That’s a lot of gummies!
But, shockingly enough, the buyer soon realized that a particularly vicious packaging design fooled him. It turns out he wasn’t buying a cup full of gummies. He was buying some gummies and getting an empty cup to go with it. How he wished he got those $3 back now...
Calling It Cheap is an Understatement
Hamburgers, like most fast-food, can go from the very basic burger to the most complex and extreme recipe. But no discount price makes it worthy of buying this piece of utter underwhelming food. Not to mention it looks like something cooked from last year.
If you can’t see it, allow us to explain. The cheapest burger restaurant in the world has decided to save money on cheese by dividing a slice for every 5 or 6 burgers. As for the customer, well, he can experience the “joys” of being fooled and (probably) having food poisoning.
Vanished Like Smoke
Smoked salmon is a delicious delicacy, and it’s often expensive. There some cheaper alternatives usually available, but they tend to be slightly less tasty. That’s okay, though. What’s not okay is to pack your smoked salmon like this!
This product is so misleading it’s painful to look at. The package says you’ll save one-third, but that’s only natural when you’re getting less than one-third of the smoked salmon you were supposed to have. We guess the rest of the salmon vanished like smoke, much to the disappointment of everyone who bought this sad piece of fish.
A Lifetime Supply of Vitamin D? Not Quite...
Vitamins are important. But their importance is often explored by the multi-million dollar supplement business, which is known for their vicious marketing tactics. This package is yet another example of how some vitamin companies do business.
When a customer bought this gigantic bottle of vitamins, he thought he was done with buying Vitamin D for 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately, there is more air than vitamins in that huge bottle. It’s deceiving and dishonest, not to mention that it’s such a waste of plastic, which is very bad for the environment.
Conveniently Wrapped
You see this type of wrap on every highway gas stop, but you never think of buying it. There’s something fishy about it, you assume, and you couldn’t be any more right! The packaging of these wraps can make anyone feel like they’ve been duped.
You think you’re getting a big roasted pepper wrap, but in the end, you find out someone took a bite in the middle. Well, at least there’s some space for you to place your feelings of disappointment and regret. Without the convenient packaging, this wrap just looks like two poor halves of mediocrity.
Levitating Noodles
If you’ve been to college in the past few decades, there’s a good chance these bad boys have been a part of your life. Noodles are highly caloric and can be prepared in less than 2 minutes. That’s every college student’s dream, and that’s why these cholesterol hazards are still flying off the shelves today.
But did you know that noodles come with a secret? You’d assume there are enough noodles to fill the entire cup by looking at it. But once you cut the box open and expose every little noddle secret, you may realize you’ve been fooled this whole time.
An Endangered Species of Lollipop
Everybody loves pandas. They’re the all-cute version of bears, they’re playful and kind, and they’re the original vegans, eating nothing but bamboo way before it was considered cool! But is it right for this lollipop company to use the image of a panda to sell candy?
Just when you think you’re about to lick a sweet panda face, you realize the panda in the lollipop was nothing but a cover-up. The real candy is all-white, which is boring and disappointing. Products like this are the reason why kids learn from early on not to trust capitalism.
Forrest Gump Was Right
Yes, life is like a box of chocolates. It’s sweet and sometimes sour, it’s surprising and delicate, and it can make you sick if you eat too much of it. But once in a while, life can also be disappointing, precisely like the box of chocolates in the picture.
Can you imagine if you decide to give this box to a friend as a gift? What will he feel as soon as he opens it? He’ll probably think you’re trying to make fun of him! That’s how bad this box of chocolates is. It’s such a poorly packed product that it can end with you being a bad person.