I recently went to see a friend at her condo for the first time. The name of her condo has the word "Asok" in it, so I assumed that from the BTS, I would be able to walk or hop on a quick motorsai ride to get there.
Wrong. It was nowhere near Asok. It was on the less civilised side of Phetchaburi Road, a great distance from Asok Intersection.
So many sly projects are doing this to consumers. They name their condo Hiso Ville Sathon when in fact it is located on Ratchapruek Road, or call themselves a "downtown Sukhumvit" project while if you smoke (you shouldn't), the smoke could easily reach Samut Prakarn. If it says "three minutes from the BTS", sometimes it means it would take you three minutes to get to the station if A) you were able to ride a motorbike across the river, B) fly, or C) teleport. The said distance is measured in a straight line from A to B, never mind the fact that there is a river in between.
How do they get away with such blatant false advertising? Do they really think consumers would say, "Hey, look! It has the word Asok in the name. Surely it must be conveniently located. Let's buy this one."?
I suppose it does make a difference in terms of brand image. Between Guru Condo Asok and Guru Condo Khlong Saen Saep, which one would you be more interested in?
While we're on the subject of false advertising, another great example would be the whitening commercials that we are force-fed everywhere we go. They promise things like "whiter skin in seven days", but the bottle is big enough to last a month. Why would we need to use it for a month if we could really whiten our skin in seven days?
Come to think of it, most commercials lie anyway. Have you really had pizza delivered to your home looking all fluffy and heavily topped like how they're advertised? Do Lay's chips really come out of the bag so perfectly round?
It has become acceptable, even somewhat expected, to see one thing in an ad and an entirely different thing in reality. And I suppose we can't really blame anyone, when we also do it ourselves, in the form of our Facebook profile pictures. The bigger lie is those people who Like it when they secretly think, "Oh you wish you looked like that in real life, huh?"
I guess it started with a bunch of people who got away with this, so more and more followed. As Gen Preecha Chan-o-cha said to the media regarding the appointment of his son as an army officer: "Many people also do this." And that explanation, dear readers, makes everything all right, from false advertising to nepotism.