This is from the inside back cover of the April 2004 edition of Consumer Reports. The inside back cover is
devoted each month to making fun of silly or stupid ads, which is childish, but what're ya gonna do?
And it is funny that the advertiser said the vehicles are slashed in half instead of the prices. Sort of like a
hand-written signboard I saw recently outside a Victoria's Secret:
But I'm disappointed the editors did not see fit to point out a second obvious error. The text of the ad reads
as follows:
Used vehicles for as low as 99¢!
That's .99 cents for used vehicles!
Well, it's just not. 99¢ is not quite a dollar, whereas .99 cents is not
quite a penny.
In fact, .99 cents is 99% smaller than 99¢.
Said the other way, 99¢ is 9,900% larger than .99 cents.
(If you're wondering how I'm so sure, I used the spreadsheet
named percentchange.xls explained here and linked to from the page
here or available directly from
here.)
Also, if you know how anyone can sell used cars for less than a penny, or even less than a dollar,
please
let me know.
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