4 ms·

Milton from Nikola would be better example in my opinion. You had him rolling a truck down the hill to show it works despite at the time it was still technology

Milton from Nikola would be better example in my opinion. You had him rolling a truck down the hill to show it works despite at the time it was still technology in development (company is still doing progress now). It still shocks me he is going to prison for that as a fraud when it was just a commercial. I don't know if you know - but classical trick in advertising food is using cigarette smoke instead of hot steam to show hot fresh food. Obviously steam would cover camera's lens and render image useless. Also most close-up food commercials have food made from rubbery guee, and not actual food because it shines better and "stays" fresh for longer than an hour when you want to do multiple shots for hours. How come McDonalds management is not facing prison like Milton is? Its because everyone knows commercial of a product does not equal to the same exact product you will pick up off the shelf and eat. Nobody at McDonald is going to jail because you attempted to sell people plastic guee covered with cigarette smell.

kube-system 4y ago
No, McDonald’s execs don’t go to prison because they can actually deliver the product they advertise. Between the statements “Here’s a burger you can eat it” and “here’s a truck look at it go”, only one is a lie.
- joering2 4y ago
  Only lie here is that their commercial said "here is a truck look at it go". Have you ever even watched it before commenting??
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Those are scare quotes in my comment, not literal quotes. I’ll rephrase it plainly: difference between the situations is a misrepresentation of material fact.
alsodumb 4y ago
You make it seem like the commercial was the only evidence used to prove that he committed fraud. He made statements, both in media and in legal documents, that proved in the court that he commit fraud.
notahacker 4y ago
I suspect that if McDonalds' management were only pretending that they were opening new burger franchises to dupe investors and they'd managed to raise billions in funding by pretending a single mockup restaurant with a rubber burger and some city stock footage was a restaurant chain, they would be quite likely to serve jail time. But McDonalds is, in fact, entirely capable of making and selling burgers. Nikola is not capable of making and selling functioning hydrogen fuel cell powered cars, despite lying about already having that capability seven years ago when their stock soared. Doesn't matter what consumers know about authenticity of advertising imagery, it matters that McDonalds investors aren't being lied to about the existence of the Big Mac and Nikola One investors were being lied to about the existence of the Nikola One's propulsion system. Which is why "other companies that aren't amongst history's biggest pump and dump scams also get creative with product images" was never going to be a viable legal defence for Milton.

kube-system 4y ago

No, McDonald’s execs don’t go to prison because they can actually deliver the product they advertise. Between the statements “Here’s a burger you can eat it” and “here’s a truck look at it go”, only one is a lie.

joering2 4y ago
Only lie here is that their commercial said "here is a truck look at it go". Have you ever even watched it before commenting??
- kube-system 4y ago
  Those are scare quotes in my comment, not literal quotes. I’ll rephrase it plainly: difference between the situations is a misrepresentation of material fact.

alsodumb 4y ago

You make it seem like the commercial was the only evidence used to prove that he committed fraud. He made statements, both in media and in legal documents, that proved in the court that he commit fraud.

notahacker 4y ago

I suspect that if McDonalds' management were only pretending that they were opening new burger franchises to dupe investors and they'd managed to raise billions in funding by pretending a single mockup restaurant with a rubber burger and some city stock footage was a restaurant chain, they would be quite likely to serve jail time. But McDonalds is, in fact, entirely capable of making and selling burgers. Nikola is not capable of making and selling functioning hydrogen fuel cell powered cars, despite lying about already having that capability seven years ago when their stock soared. Doesn't matter what consumers know about authenticity of advertising imagery, it matters that McDonalds investors aren't being lied to about the existence of the Big Mac and Nikola One investors were being lied to about the existence of the Nikola One's propulsion system. Which is why "other companies that aren't amongst history's biggest pump and dump scams also get creative with product images" was never going to be a viable legal defence for Milton.