False Advertising

Hello Friends,

            Facebook asks “What’s on your mind?”

            What's on MY mind? False advertising! That's what!

            I bought a very small bottle (for a dollar) of what I supposed was Pure Vrigin Olive Oil at local store several days ago. That was what the bottle had on the front of it in LARGE letters. Had I looked closely, underneath in much smaller letters in a color that BLENDED in with the color of the bottle it said "Blend", which word I didn't see until I got home. Okay, so I have a bottle of "Pure Virgin Olive Oil Blend". I can live with that. When I saw "blend" I started looking around to find out what the "blend" was. On the back of the bottle in EXTREMELY SMALL, almost infinitesimally tiny letters, so small that most people would need a magnifying glass to read it, it told the percentage of Olive Oil in the bottle! SIX percent! Yes, 6% ONLY!!!!! And in large letters on the front, it said "PURE VIRGIN OLIVE OIL"!

            SOoooooo..... yesterday I was in that store where I had bought this stuff in the first place. I grabbed a bottle off the shelf and took it to the register. The lady at the counter was having trouble with the register... the screen just went blank on the order she had just rung up while I waited to speak with her. The person who looked like a manager came to help. The cashier took the order to ring up at another register, and I started to speak to the manager. I quickly assured him I did not want to buy the bottle in my hand, but asked him if he could read the fine print on the back of the bottle!! He glanced at it, but probably couldn't. I didn't give him much time and I asked him if he knew how much Pure Virgin Olive Oil was in the bottle. I didn't remember the exact number at that time, but told him it was a very SMALL amount.. His response was,"Well, if it were real olive oil, I'd have to charge SEVEN dollars for the bottle!!! And it's flavored like olive oil!" I was NOT expecting THAT response! It did not say "Pure Virgin Olive Oil FLAVOR on the bottle.THEN he proceeded to tell me that their "honey" is not real honey, but just "honey flavored!" He ALMOST sounded PROUD of these facts!

            I was so surprised at his ATTITUDE (not quite so much at the facts) that I was almost speechless! NOT QUITE, though. I just wish I had rebounded quickly enough to suggest that the OIL bottle led people to believe something that is NOT TOTALLY TRUE!! NOT even partially true, really, unless one believes that SIX PERCENT of something constitutes as PARTIALLY true. Technically, I guess they can "get away with it" if no one confronts them, but in MY book, it's WRONG all the way! It should just say “~whatever~ and  Olive Oil Blend” and even then it should give the percentages of on the FRONT of the bottle (in letters large enough to read) with Olive Oil NOT being the first ingredient listed on the front label!

            I happened to be out of olive oil the day I bought it, saw it on the shelf, and grabbed it quickly, thinking it would tide me over for a day or two. It doesn't pay to buy without reading the details. Lesson learned!! (I hope!)

And so for now, Good-bye and God Bless!  and
May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.  Romans 15:33  

Blessings!
Mona in Maine