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I've been shopping on Instacart a lot during the pandemic and I've noticed a related phenomenon: packaging designed to make products look bigger than they reall
by maddyboo 5y ago
I've been shopping on Instacart a lot during the pandemic and I've noticed a related phenomenon: packaging designed to make products look bigger than they really are, especially in online photos. It's not necessarily a new thing, but the online photo aspect is somewhat novel because you don't get to see the product in context.
For example, a jar of Jalapenos, product photo: https://i.imgur.com/mprWr6R.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mprWr6R.jpg
In reality, the jar's cross-section isn't circular as it appears, it's an ellipse/oval: https://i.imgur.com/dXDUOR9.png https://i.imgur.com/dXDUOR9.png
Only the first photo was included in the item listing. When the groceries were delivered and I pulled out the jar, I was so surprised by the odd football-like shape that I couldn’t stop laughing for a few minutes at how well they’d fooled me.
Another common thing to see is familiar product packaging that is just “scaled down”. Everything about the packaging looks the same or very similar, but smaller - especially fonts. This deceives the eye into believing the product is much larger. I recently fell for this when shopping for some conditioner. The packaging is not exactly the same but close enough to fool me at a glance:
What I bought: https://i.imgur.com/MdAuhS0.png https://i.imgur.com/MdAuhS0.png
What I expected: https://i.imgur.com/MGxdD0d.png https://i.imgur.com/MGxdD0d.png
I'm inclined the believe this is on purpose because in real life, the fonts are way too small to read comfortably. If not trying to mislead, I would expect the packaging to be designed to be legible, right?
It's especially frustrating because I usually would've just paid more for the larger size.
- irjustin 5y agoMy favorite are the photoshopped images where the sizing is completely off. This sewing machine's image[0] looks huge! When in reality, it's $20 and mostly a "toy" machine; not much bigger than 4AA batteries[1]. Or maybe the dude is just really small. More hilarious than nefarious as in your case. [0] https://my-test-11.slatic.net/original/8dcf4c63812b0453fc3ed4931ea7b5d7.jpg_720x720q80.jpg_.webp https://my-test-11.slatic.net/original/8dcf4c63812b0453fc3ed... [1] https://laz-img-sg.alicdn.com/p/3126136a068a0eca84086249126be71d.jpg https://laz-img-sg.alicdn.com/p/3126136a068a0eca84086249126b...
- panda88888 5y agoI have the plug in version of this sewing machine. Yup, it’s is pretty small in real life.
- Jordrok 5y agoThat one actually seems straight up manipulated rather than just deceptively presented to me. That guy's entire arm is somehow fitting inside of a machine which could barely fit his finger in actuality!
- ComodoHacker 5y agoAlso the machine image is mirrored, controls are on the wrong side.
- FooHentai 5y agoinflatable pool/yard toys are for some reason extremely susceptible to this. Like those paddling pools where the image shows a whole family playing in it, when in reality your kid can maybe fit a single ankle in there.
- TonyTrapp 5y agoReminds me of this classic scene from Top Secret: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoTBlDfVhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoTBlDfVhk :)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- alister 5y ago> make products look bigger than they really are, especially in online photos I've noticed that tiny condos and apartments in real estate photos look enormous. I'm undecided on whether this is a deliberate attempt to mislead or an artifact of having to use a wide angle lens to capture the whole room (but an artifact that the seller and real estate agent like).
- tenpies 5y agoDeliberate and a well known practice. Sometimes it's done poorly and leads to hilariously bad photos (e.g. a fridge as wide as a 72 inch TV).
- alchemism 5y agoThey are deliberate in that they know how to take a photograph which maximizes the attractiveness of a space. The same tradition occurs in filling the written description of a place with no amenities. “Walking distance to schools & churches” is a popular filler. Τhe facility could be 50 feet away or it could be a 5 mile walk; anything short of walking alongside the freeway is fair game to describe in this fashion.
- roel_v 5y ago"Τhe facility could be 50 feet away or it could be a 5 mile walk" Realtor associations at least in the Netherlands have guidelines (e.g. on what distances amounts to 'walkable') that prevent this sort of thing, I see no reaons our country would be unique; that said, do you have any specific examples of ads like this? It's not that I'm that fond of realtors, but some of the over the top claims in this thread are really exaggerations. Will you find examples of exaggerated claims? Of course. The question is, is it 'common'? I'd say no.
- Vinnl 5y agoOf course, in the Netherlands you'd just say "cyclable", and almost everything in almost every city is.
- 5y ago
- roel_v 5y agoBoth photos clearly have the contents (in oz/gr) on them, and they appear perfectly standardized amounts. I don't think there's any conspiracy going on here. As to the conditioner, I quite like the trend of having multiple sizes of things (e.g. for travelling) and I'd hate the branding to be different depending on an implementation detail like the amount of product I'm buying. I mean, you can see conspiracies everywhere if you look for them, but the examples you're showing don't convince me in the least.
- rdsubhas 5y agoYep, came here to say this. We buy looking at the grams, not the jar or tube. Manufacturers actually pay for the volume of space used in stores. The more efficiently they use the space, the better. Having smaller jars or tubes for the same grams is a good thing!
- maddyboo 5y agoYes, I knew someone would say this. But in the context of putting together a 60 item grocery order in 30 minutes, it’s easy to miss some data points. I would imagine a large number of people would be occasionally misled by things like this unless they’re paying close attention.
- loa_in_ 5y agoEvery scam in the world can be avoided if the customer pays enough attention. One can always say - pay more attention and you won't get scammed. This doesn't make the practice any less scummy.
- roel_v 5y agoBut the question is - is there any indication of intent to mislead. They just don't pay much attention to how things look when photographed for online shopping, it seems to me.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoThis is one of the situations that should be approached with Hanlon's handgun, not Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by systemic incentives promoting malice." C.f. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21691282 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21691282
- canucker2016 5y agoNot sure if it's only in Great Britain where this occurs, but the food manufacturers have taken the acronym WYSIWYG to heart. Don't expect anything more than what is visible in the food packaging. The little plastic window in the packaging shows lots of pepperoni? Don't assume the whole pizza is uniformly covered in pepperoni. You'll just make an ass out of yourself. see https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-5274153/Photos-misleading-packaging-fools-shoppers.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-5274153/Phot... I've seen pix of sandwiches where the packaging looks like there's tons of filling only to reveal that all the fillings have been jammed to the front of the package window.
- Hello71 5y ago> © REDDITT/IMGUR ah, daily mail...
- sebzim4500 5y agoIs that actually intentional? i.e. if you bought a bunch of them would they all be like that? It could just be that they have machines that try to randomly scatter pepperoni (or whatever) and then the ones where none of the pepperoni ends up visible fail QA. I think that's happening with at least the waitrose smoked salmon in that article, because I have had that before and it definitely wasn't misleading.
- michaelt 5y agoSome of it is completely intentional - some cakes and chocolates literally come with a vacuum-formed tray that takes up 80% of the volume of the package. And of course, many brands of crisps/chips come with enormous bags that are almost empty. Of course, I'm sure the corporations would say it's "to stop the product getting damaged"
- nitrogen 5y agoMost recent example of empty bags I have encountered is salads/greens. The same bag size used to contain twice as much salad by volume just a year or two ago.
- only_as_i_fall 5y agoI can't even really tell for the shampoo except for the listed ounces.
- agumonkey 5y agoPeople also noticed slight changes in food content, playing on volume scale iirc. Box looks only slightly thinner, content quite less, price a little below. Naively you think you bought the same at a discount.
- emodendroket 5y agoI bought some squid at an Asian grocer that was wrapped in a cellophane kind of plastic, with a little "window" showing you one full piece and the tips of two more pieces in other flavors. Imagine my surprise when I opened it and the the "tips" of the other pieces were the whole thing.
- 55555 5y agoIn cases where online sales outpace in-store sales, the labeling is more designed for the online product photo than for reality.
- kevinmchugh 5y agoThe other trick you see often is increasing the size of the concavity on the bottom of the package. Two items can look identical on the shelf but have dramatically different volumes.
- sjg007 5y agoThe Big Mac in the ad never looks like the real life one.
- pixl97 5y agoIn theory if you bought hundreds of them you could piece one together that looked like the ad. They are real food, but they are the best of the best for the photo op.
- merpnderp 5y agoMy Aldis and Homeland frozen blueberries have gone from 12oz to 10oz. Walmart is still 12.
- dougmwne 5y agoThis happened a whole bunch to us recently. We even made a little display out of our online purchases gone wrong. Tiny hand creams, doll-sized post-it notes, itty-bitty padlocks, and more, all due to deceiving photos and prices. It became a joke whenever we ordered something new on Amazon to ask if it was going to be lilliputian or regular. It's clearly not an accident and has only been happening recently after 20 years of ordering regular sized things online.
- athenot 5y ago> It's not necessarily a new thing, but the online photo aspect is somewhat novel because you don't get to see the product in context. For example, a jar of Jalapenos Nutella has been doing that for decades.
- Ancalagon 5y agoThis is EXACTLY what I noticed when strolling the aisles of 5 Below for the first time.
- lodi 5y agoAnother similar problem is hot sauce sizing, and whether "X oz (2 pack)" means two bottles of X or two bottles of X/2 for a total of X oz. Btw, with those jalapenos... not only is the jar misleading, but I found those jalapenos to be mushy and bland. I found this brand afterwards that was much better: https://www.mezzetta.com/products/deli-sliced-hot-jalapea-o-peppers https://www.mezzetta.com/products/deli-sliced-hot-jalapea-o-...
- dsr_ 5y agoBuy nice looking jalapeños at your grocery store; slice them into a glass or plastic container; fill half-way with white vinegar; add salt; fill the rest of the way with water. Put them in the fridge. They'll be ready to eat the next day and last a couple of weeks. I like adding garlic and dill.
- yourapostasy 5y agoThis is among the many reasons why I shifted to purchasing as much as I can from zero-waste groceries, bulk ingredients buying using my own containers, and preparing meals from scratch. Packaged products' value proposition used to be predicated primarily upon convenience. If I find myself having to spend time and cognitive load to evaluate and vet a type/brand of packaged product due to obfuscations and distortions, then I immediately stop buying from them altogether, find DIY options and bulk prepare them, or do without.