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Lies We Bought is an award-winning podcast that traces advertising lies and marketing deception back to where they started. Host Emily Rask spent over a decade building marketing and advertising campaigns, and now she's reading the fine print out loud (think everything from "got milk?" to "clean beauty") to show how the message got made and why we believed it. Part branding history, part consumer psychology, part 1950s wink.
If you love smart, myth-busting shows about advertising, branding, and the hidden tricks behind the stuff you buy, you're in the right place.
Pulled fresh from the oven every Tuesday at 7 AM EST. Hit follow and start questioning the receipts.
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The 8-Hour Workday Debunked: Who Really Set Your Hours
Why do we work 8 hours a day? The 8-hour workday wasn’t backed by science or chosen for workers’ health. It started as a slogan, and it only took hold in America once it made Henry Ford money. In this episode of Lies We Bought, the Signal A
Stranger Danger: Who Really Sold Us the Fear
For a generation of kids, stranger danger was the first safety rule we ever learned. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t take the candy. Don’t get in the van. But the panic behind it was built on statistics that didn’t hold up, and the people wh
Buy One, Get One Free Debunked: Who Pays for the Free One?
Buy one, get one free sounds like the store is handing you a gift, but the second item has been tucked inside the price of the first one for over a century, and the Supreme Court said so in 1965. Emily Rask follows the word free from Coca-C
As Seen on TV: The Infomercial Moved to TikTok Shop
In 1949, a man demonstrating a blender on Cleveland TV got more than 400 phone orders in one day, and As Seen on TV was born. This episode of Lies We Bought follows the infomercial from that live demo to the Ginsu knife, Billy Mays, the Snu
Laughter Is the Best Medicine: The Science, the Myth, the Markup
Is laughter really the best medicine? In 1964, Norman Cousins checked out of the hospital, moved into a hotel room with a projector and a stack of Marx Brothers films, and became the man who laughed himself well. His story is still repeated
The Five Love Languages: The Dark Side of Love Advice
The Five Love Languages has sold millions of copies and shows up everywhere from first dates to therapists' offices, yet Gary Chapman built the framework from his own notes as a Baptist pastor counseling couples. This episode traces how the
Smokey Bear: The Wartime Ad That Became a Government Icon
Smokey Bear has been telling America it's your fault since 1944. This episode traces the real story behind the mascot: a wartime scare on the California coast, an ad campaign built to control public behavior, and a real orphaned bear cub wh
Made in USA: Only 11% of What You Buy Actually Is
The "Made in USA" label feels like a promise. Legally, it's a lot looser than you think, and the amount of stuff that can actually earn it has been shrinking for decades. This episode traces the label from an 1887 British shame tactic to a
Extended Warranty: The Fine Print Industry Built on Fear
Extended warranties aren't insurance. Legally, they can't even use the word. They're "service contracts," a separate category with none of the payout rules that protect you when real insurance is on the line, and that one distinction explai
Guess What Day Is It?: The Line That Took Over Wednesdays
Every Wednesday, GEICO's camel asks what day it is. The original ad that made that question famous racked up more than 16 million views on YouTube and then disappeared, with no explanation ever given. This episode debunks the corporate myth
Social Comparison: The Joneses Were Never Real
The phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" comes from a 1913 comic strip drawn by a cartoonist who nearly went broke trying to match his wealthy neighbors and the Joneses themselves never once appeared in it. This episode covers where the phr
The Salt Conspiracy: From Ancient Currency to the Himalayan Pink Marketing Trap
Morton Salt's slogan started as a promise about clumping, not a warning about bad luck, and somehow it became both. This episode traces salt from ancient currency and empire-building to the umbrella girl on your kitchen shelf, then follows
Expiration Dates: The Corporate Strategy Forcing You to Waste Money
Most of the dates on your food aren't required by any law and weren't checked by anyone. This episode follows the story from a persistent Al Capone myth about spoiled milk, through the shoppers who cracked grocery stores' secret shelf codes
An Apple a Day: How a Dying Industry Invented a Health Myth
An apple a day keeps the doctor away sounds like grandmother's wisdom, but it was a 1904 marketing rescue plan for an industry that had just lost its actual product: booze. Lies We Bought traces the apple from Prohibition-era cider crop to
War on Drugs: The Famous TV Ad That Lied to America
The fried-egg ad that defined the War on Drugs was built by a marketing firm, not a doctor, and the science behind it was thinner than the slogan. Lies We Bought traces how a single 1987 commercial turned drug fear into federal policy, who
Maxwell House: The Presidential Endorsement That Was Total Fiction
I grew up Mormon, which meant coffee was never allowed in my house, so it's a little ironic that this week's coffee myth isn't really about coffee at all, it's about five words Theodore Roosevelt almost certainly never said. By the 1930s, M
The Fake Chocolate Scandal: Hershey's, M&M's, and More
Advertising lies, branding history, marketing deception: Lies We Bought is a weekly deep dive into the hidden origins of the slogans and campaigns that shaped what you buy. This week, the chocolate industry. "Melts in your mouth, not in you
The Customer Is Always Right: Ex-Bartender Confession
"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 s
Cash for Clunkers: How America Paid to Crush 700,000 Cars
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 i
Pizza Hut's Book It!: The Genius Marketing Trap Behind Childhood Reading
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 educa
Listerine: How the "Always a Bridesmaid" Ad Invented a Fake Disease
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
Seatbelt Laws: The Hidden Financial Motives Behind Car Safety
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
"Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner": The Slogan That Sparked a Federal Lawsuit
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
Vitamins & Supplements: Why They Don’t Need FDA Approval
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. Thi
Firefighter Gear & Lululemon: The Same Poison Hiding in Our Clothes
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 clothin
Wheaties: How Sports Marketing Invented a Healthy Illusion
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 c
Controversy Sells | One-Minute What
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 ha
Nike's "Just Do It": The Dark Serial Killer Origin of a Global Slogan
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 P
THe Ogilvy Halo Effect | One-Minute What
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 st
Low-Fat Conspiracy: The 1994 Food Industry Scam That Made America Sick
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
