Lie Cake Lie

I don't like liars. I don't think they're the sort of people that one should do business with. Yet liars persist in this online world, as a Google Search of "overnight cake delivery" will attest.

There's one company lying to you in its ads, and one that's not. I'm sure you can figure out who's who and what the lie is, but for the record, one more time:

There is no such thing as free shipping.

Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you and playing on your vulnerable desire to get a bargain. They'll probably try to convince you that there's only one flavor of cake in the world, too.

I'd like to know what happened to truth in advertising. Oh, right, this is the Internet, and there's a lot of shady characters around here, some of whom have actual marketing budgets. I'm tempted to buy an AdWords ad that reads,

Liars, liars, liars
Admit that you pay for shipping
On overnight cake delivery

Listen, I could charge $65 a cake or $75 a cake, hide the shipping costs, and tell you that it's free too. I could also tell you that I'm eleven feet tall with a moustache made of solid platinum and Razor scooters where my feet should be, and that I use my increased mobility and bullet-proof upper lip to battle crime every night as Platinum-Razor Man. Wouldn't make it true.

Do you really think a cake costs sixty bucks? Doesn't it seem like there's some additional charges hidden in there somewhere? Wouldn't you prefer a little more honesty in your life?

At the very least, I consider claims of "free" shipping to be very unethical. At worst, it's an outright lie, and when you put it in your ads with exclamation points, you're lying, plain and simple. I couldn't sleep at night knowing that I was lying to my customers, but I guess some people can.