Is Deception A Selling Point?

I happen to be a music fan from my childhood in the sixties. I still have some of the vinyl records which belonged to my brother when I was a kid.

With the advancement of technology and the emergence of CDs, I developed a desire to have all my favorites of yesteryear on CDs.

Here I make reference to one particular incident in which I made an attempt to add to my collection.

I once purchased a music CD at a reputed music shop in the city.

The sleeve of the CD contained a picture of a particular musical group which was a favorite of mine.

The caption on top read "The very best of" followed by the name of the band.

Looking at the picture I was able to recognize the leader of the band.

The list of tracks printed on the sleeve mentioned all their number one hits.

There was just one copy. So I picked it off the shelf, and safely clutching it in my hand, lest somebody else notices it and wants to grab it, continued to look around viewing the other CDs on display.

The price was marked $6.00. It contained eighteen tracks and included two of my favorites.

I would have gladly paid that $6.00 even if it had contained only these two tracks and nothing else.

I have done such things in the past, like purchasing a casette tape although it contained only one track that I would like to have had. Many people do.

I then walked up to the cashier, pulled out my credit card and handed it over to him along with the CD.

While he scanned the bar code and punched in my credit card details, I said to him how fortunate I thought I was to grab that last available copy.

He confirmed that I was indeed fortunate.

My CD player at that time was not in working order. It needed to be repaired.

So, as I reached home I put on my earphones and inserted the disk into my computer's drive.

On my computer the band sounded somewhat different. I kept on skipping tracks.

Since they sounded different, I thought some of those tracks may be older versions of popular songs which were recorded before the band gained fame.

But, none of those tracks sounded similar to the original versions that I was used to hearing.

I put away the disk hoping to play it on my CD-player once I get it repaired.

When my CD-player was finally put right, I gave this CD another spin and listened to the tracks once more via my two high wattage speakers.

This time to my utter disappointment I realized without any doubt at all, that this was not the band that I wanted to listen to.

This was not the band whose music I wanted. It was not them at all. It was some other band playing the very same music, and they were sounding very much alike.

It was my experience that told me that this was certainly not the band I had hoped it would be.

Once more I carefully examined the cover of the CD and the flip side of it.

It was then that I spotted a cleverly worded statement which was hidden within the introductory phrases. It went like this ... "This collection contains faithful renditions of ... So that's it! "faithful renditions."

However, the picture of the five members of the band was an original. Of course the picture was deliberately placed there to deceive the buyer.

In a court of law, the declaration would be that he who intends purchasing this CD is supposed to read the text on the cover and properly interpret the term "faithful renditions," and then make his decision.

This is how the law works. The law has loopholes, exploitable by anyone. Loopholes, almost as if to say "come on, give it a shot!"

The understanding is that the law is for the benefit of man. In a case like this, it is "that" man who deliberately put a deceptive picture on his product to induce a purchase.

He benefits since the loophole in the law is in his favor.

Deception in advertising is on the rise, especially with technology supporting the creation of graphics, and pictures which can replace words, using clever psychology, giving impressions that create favorable conditions for the seller.

Although in this case it was only a picture that gave a false impression of the product it represented.

Even though I was the victim, the fault is mine, as I should have read the text on the sleeve and properly understood it before purchasing. I simply didn't. So the fault is mine. As often it is the victim who is at fault. That's the way the law works.

... concluded