Numbers game

By Steve Brearton
Illustration: Seth

Ad absurdum

Late last year, after Rogers Communications and Telus traded claims in ads about the speed and reliability of their wireless networks, judges got involved. It’s not the first time

0 Number of tests conducted on all electric shaver brands in Canada by Remington to ensure its shavers “shave … closer than any other electric shaver.” The firm was fined $75,000 in 1991 for the transgression.

1 Number of successful false advertising charges brought against the maker of the Graham Potentializer bed in 1982 who claimed it would increase intelligence and cure Down’s syndrome. “This works; there’s no question about that,” said inventor David Graham. “It’s just a matter of doing more research to prove it.”

40 Percentage Canadian content in Hyundai Sonata cars manufactured in Bromont, Que., in 1992. The company falsely claimed the cars were made in Quebec (requiring more than 50% content). Regulators required them to publish ads clarifying the error.

178 Number of Suzy Shier stores engaging in a process known as double-tagging, where sale tags appear alongside a regular price that never effectively existed. The retailer was fined $1 million for the practice in 2003.

3,000 Fine in dollars levied in 1979 against CCCL Canadian Consumer Co. and Allan Diamond of Montreal for claiming their “gas-saving Ram-Jet supercharger” would turn “pollution into free energy.”

35,000 Number of diamond rings bearing false appraisals sold by department store Simpsons-Sears Ltd. between 1975 and 1978. “You may soon see a group called DIAMONDS — Dissatisfied Investors Against Misrepresentation on New Diamonds Sold,” commented a Toronto lawyer specializing in class-action suits afterward.