ABSTRACT
Marbles in the soup and crushed Volvos refer to two famous examples of what most people consider to be deceptive advertising (Horovitz, 1991; Michlin, 2008). Some years ago, it was revealed that Campbell’s made its soup look chunkier and substantial in its advertising photographs by putting marbles in soup bowls. (The company said that the real vegetables in the soup sunk to the bottom of the bowl and thus didn’t properly show the true texture of the product). The Volvo ads presumably showed a car that was so strong that it could survive a monster truck being driven over it. In fact, workers had reinforced the car well beyond its usual construction. In the view of critics, these actions violated ethical norms.
