Lies We Bought

"The customer is always right" wasn't a rule, it was consumer deception dressed up as a promise. In this episode, I go back to 1905 and the two department store men who invented the phrase to get you through their doors, then trace how it slowly stopped being a marketing promise and became something customers use against the workers who once benefited from it. Along the way: a call center study on...

In the summer of 2009, the federal government paid Americans to destroy nearly 700,000 working cars, and the four-word slogan that sold it did more work than the three billion dollars behind it. Cash for Clunkers promised to save the auto industry, clean up the environment, and put money back in people's pockets all at once. In this episode I trace where the name actually came from, how dealers we...

For forty years, Pizza Hut's Book It program gave kids a free personal pan pizza for reading. More than seventy million children went through it. This is the story of what that pizza was actually buying. I trace Book It! from the 1984 education panic that opened the door, through the loss-leader economics that made giving away pizza profitable, to the developmental psychology that explains why a b...

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. The phrase sounds like it has been around forever, but it traces back to a 1925 Listerine ad built around a fictional woman named Edna and a manufactured condition called halitosis. This week I follow the phrase back to its real origin, a 1917 British music hall comedy song, and then into the hands of Gerard Lambert, the mouthwash heir who found an obscure word...

In 1993, North Carolina wrote four words on a sign and accidentally handed the federal government one of its most effective behavioral control tools in history. "Click It or Ticket" didn't try to convince you seatbelts were a good idea. It just changed the math. In this episode, we follow the full story: the 1959 invention of the three-point seatbelt by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin, the patent Volvo...

You've had that slogan in your head for thirty years. "Beef. It's What's For Dinner." Someone built it. Someone paid for it. And the story of who, and why, is way stranger than the commercials ever let on. In Episode 17, Emily traces how a mandatory dollar-per-head tax on every cattle sale in America built one of the most psychologically sophisticated ad campaigns in history, why small ranchers we...

People take supplements for energy, immunity, or because someone on TikTok said magnesium changed their life. The U.S. supplement industry is worth billions, yet many products reach store shelves without ever proving they actually work. This episode of Lies We Bought explores the legal loopholes that reshaped supplement regulation, and how marketing turned everyday pills into expensive wellness ri...

PFAS, or "forever chemicals," have been hiding in plain sight for 80 years: in nonstick pans, fast food wrappers, stain-resistant furniture, and the turnout gear worn by first responders. Now they're under investigation in Lululemon clothing, and new research shows they may be slowing firefighters' cognitive function in real time. Host Emily Rask takes this one personally. Her husband Travis is a...

For nearly a century, Wheaties convinced America that greatness could start with a bowl of cereal. This week on Lies We Bought, I open the cereal box on how “The Breakfast of Champions” became one of the most successful identity-marketing campaigns created. From accidental kitchen discoveries and failing sales to celebrity athletes, psychological conditioning, and the rise of sports endorsements,...

P.T. Barnum knew people would pay to see something questionable before they would ignore it completely. This One Minute What breaks down how controversy, curiosity, and the sunk cost fallacy work together to pull you in, and why once you have paid attention, your brain starts looking for ways to justify it. Because they do not need you to like it. They just need you to look.

In 1977, a man faced a firing squad in a Utah state prison and said three words. A decade later, an ad man changed one of them and handed them to the entire world. In this episode I trace the full origin of the "Just Do It" campaign, from Phil Knight selling shoes out of a car trunk to the moment Dan Wieden pitched a line Knight famously called unnecessary. The emotional branding playbook, the Jor...

David Ogilvy famously said, “The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife,” and that belief shaped how modern advertising earns trust and attention. This One Minute What breaks down the halo effect and how brands use subtle signals like style, tone, and positioning to create a high class perception that makes people feel comfortable paying more. Because once something looks premium, your brain st...

Somewhere along the way, we decided fat was the problem, and built an entire way of eating around that idea. This episode breaks down how that belief took hold, from early nutrition research to government policy to the food industry quietly reshaping what ended up on store shelves. Because what looked like a simple health shift turned into something much bigger, and a lot more profitable, than any...

Your "morning routine" isn't a health choice - it's a series of manufactured solutions. In this episode of One-Minute What, we’re exposing Albert Lasker, the "Father of Modern Advertising" who realized that the easiest way to sell a product is to invent a problem first. Lasker didn't just meet consumer demand; he created shame. From turning floor cleaner into a cure for "Halitosis" to forcing oran...

You didn't want the Large fries. In this episode of Lies We Bought, we unpack the "Bigger is Better" business model. We explore the psychological traps that make "more" feel like the only rational choice, from fast food menus to the SUV loophole. Inside this episode: The Origin of "Large": How David Wallerstein invented the large fry to boost margins. The Decoy Effect: Why pricing tiers are design...

"Good" companies don't exist - only very good storytellers do.  In this episode of One-Minute What, we’re peeling back the curtain on the man who invented the modern "corporate soul" - Ivy Lee. Before Lee, if a monopoly did something wrong, they hid. Lee taught them to do the opposite: flood the zone. By exploiting what psychologists call the "Availability Cascade," Lee proved that if you repeat a...

It’s 1993. You’re one trivia question away from $10,000, but your mouth is full of peanut butter and the milk carton is empty. Welcome to Lies We Bought. Today, Emily unpacks the "Got Milk?" campaign—the marketing "miracle" that saved a dying industry. But the story doesn't start with celebrities and white mustaches. It starts with "swill milk," wartime price supports, and a government that accide...

Can a single bite of a burger start a corporate war? In this episode of One-Minute What, we’re breaking down the PR disaster currently taking over social media. It all started when McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a video trying the new Big Arch Burger. Instead of a mouth-watering review, fans were left watching a "tentative, fearful bite" and cringing as he repeatedly referred to the food...

Why does aging feel loaded now when it didn’t used to? In this episode of Lies We Bought, we trace how the beauty industry transformed getting older into something women were taught to manage, monitor, and correct. From early skincare diagnosis and salon culture to Botox, preventative treatments, and modern “longevity” language, this episode explores how fear became one of the most profitable tool...

Some ideas don’t spread because they’re true. They spread because they’re repeated. This One-Minute What looks at cultural brainworms and why they’re not accidental. How simple ideas, repeated often enough, start to feel like facts. Not because they’re proven, but because they’re familiar. Brands don’t need to convince you. They just need to remind you. Again and again. Until belief feels obvious....

Ever notice how “Mercury in Retrograde” is the only astronomical event that makes everyone panic? Before you decide you’re just “off” today, this episode looks at how astrology became one of the most effective belief systems in modern marketing. We trace astrology back more than 4,000 years to Babylonia, where tracking the stars wasn’t about personality traits or compatibility. It was a high-stake...

Work-life balance isn’t a personal failure. It’s a system problem. In this One-Minute What, we’re unpacking why burnout isn’t caused by bad boundaries, poor time management, or not trying hard enough. Research shows burnout comes from chronic workload, lack of control, unclear expectations, and workplace stress, not individual weakness. So how did work-life balance become your responsibility inste...

Diamonds feel ancient. Inevitable. Like they’ve always been part of love. They haven’t. In this episode of Lies We Bought, we dig into the marketing history behind diamonds and how one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time turned a plentiful gemstone into a symbol of forever. We explore how De Beers controlled supply, reshaped social expectations, and tied diamonds to love, sacr...

Does “treat yourself” actually work? I love a good treat. Truly. But some fascinating research made me pause. Studies show that while buying yourself something feels good in the moment, acts of kindness toward others tend to create deeper, longer-lasting happiness. Helping someone else does more for our well-being than another self-focused reward. Marketing noticed this gap. For years, self-care h...

At some point, food quietly stopped being food. A label on the package. A higher price. A feeling that one choice says something better about you than the other. In this episode, I unpack how organic food became a moral signal rather than just a farming method. What started as early 20th-century fears around chemicals and industrialization evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry built on puri...