On the Radio...

"If your car's MSRP was $20,000, we'll give you $20,000! If it was $30,000, we'll give you $30,000!" Such was an auto dealer's ad blaring out of my radio last night. Equally bombastic was the announcement that this great deal would be "for three days only," ignoring the fact that they ran the exact same promotion last week, also "for three days only."

Okay, so if I bring in my 2003 car, which cost $22,000, they're going to give me that amount off a new car? They certainly want me to think so! But you have to listen very carefully to hear them mention that they'll be deducting 40c per mile from that fabulous amount they're going to pay for my car.

If I do a little math, I discover that the 86,000 miles on my car equals a $34,400 deduction.  I guess that means they would charge me $12,400 to take the car off my hands?

Makes me wish I had my mother's old Chrysler New Yorker, though. She rarely drove it and, after a dozen years, it had less than 15,000 miles on it. With that deduction worth only $6,000, we could end up getting a new car for free.

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What's the deal with "Laser Ray," who advertises that his laser treatment can make you stop smoking in just 30 minutes? I don't have any idea how it works, but the ads have me wondering if he's performing lobotomies.

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While there are plenty of misleading ads, there are also ones that have me wondering if anyone does any fact-checking. Or even reviews what they are saying.

Case in point is a current Lowe's commercial that says that the New York Yankees have won more World Series games -- 27 -- than any other team in baseball. Well, no. They've won 27 World Series and, as even the most casual baseball fan knows, it takes four wins to take the Series.

In fact, the Yankees have won 134 World Series games (and lost 90) in the 40 World Series they have played.  Every one of those numbers is a record.