Monthly Archives: July 2008

False Advertising?

McDonalds Sausage Burrito AdMcDonalds Sausage Burrito Reality

I came across an interesting web site the other day that made me wonder if someone shouldn’t start a class action lawsuit against the fast food companies for false advertising.

How many times a day are people snookered into going into McDonalds or Taco Bell or Kentucky Fried Chicken by an enticing food picture, only to receive a microwaved, smashed indigestible piece of junk?

The site has wonderful side-by-side pictorial examples of the promise versus the reality.

What would you do if you bought a new car based on the model you saw in a brochure and the dealer drove a discolored, dented vehicle with cracked windows and half-flat tires around front for you to take home?

So why is it okay for fast food companies to treat their customers in the same manner?

People wouldn’t take this kind of bait and switch from a sit-down restaurant. They would send the food back.

So why shouldn’t we rise up and fight back against a “fast food” restaurant in the same way?

What do you think?

Image credits: thewvsr.com

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Government Opens Up to Innovation

Name one of the leading governments for fostering innovation?

If you said the United States, I think you are wrong. While the United States government may dole out a lot of research grants, the United Kingdom tends to take a more active approach in encouraging citizen innovation.

Witness this article from the BBC web site about a competition launched by the UK government at showusabetterway.com to find innovative ways of using the masses of data it collects.

The article profiles three different websites including:

  1. Crime Mapping
  2. FixMyStreet.com
  3. Rate Your Prison

I would love to hear about what countries you think are the most successful and stirring up citizen innovation.

Comment away…

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