There are lies, damned lies and marketers.

I always subscribed to simple beliefs. A brand is like a person. If it's honest, friendly, trustworthy, fun and caring it will be liked.

Somehow in our current world that seems beyond most every marketer. Mostly because, I suppose, it's easier to "say" than "do." So brands routinely make promises, both implicit and explicit, that they have no intention of keeping.

I am old-fashioned, I suppose, in my embrace of integrity. But I find the banner ad pasted above egregious. (If you click on it, the adipose belly will transform into sculpted abs.) What strikes me as shocking (though it shouldn't I suppose since the only thing that matters in the world is money) is that the advertiser in this case is using, with either impunity or consent, the implied endorsement of two major networks. You'd think that someone somewhere would protest, either from one of those networks or from our industry. Because seeing lies like the above, how do you then trust anything?