The 15 Biggest Lies Ever Told By Major Advertisers

Advertising doesn't have a reputation for being the most honest profession.

While most people know that banner ads from companies you've never heard of that promise to melt away "20 pounds in a week, no exercise required!" should be taken with a grain of salt, some huge and highly respected brands are also guilty of telling their consumers major lies to make sales.

You'd have to be pretty dumb to believe some of them. Skechers once claimed that by simply putting on a pair of their shoes you'd magically get buns of steel. Others  went so far as to cite fake studies to prove their false selling points.

Here are the 15 biggest offenders.

15. That Dr. Koch's Cure All cured all.

Starting in 1919, Dr William Frederick Koch created a medication with a drug that he claimed could cure "all human ills, including tuberculosis" and cancer.

But when doctors tested the drug in 1948, doctors found that glyoxylide, the drug in question, contained little more than distilled water. Koch treated cancer patients, many of whom died, primarily with the drug.

Although the FDA was vocal in their disgust with Koch, they couldn't find enough evidence to press charges. Koch ended up fleeing to Rio de Janeiro in the late '40s.

14. That Classmates.com will find your classmates.

Before there was Facebook, people were chomping at the bit to sign up for Classmates.com and contact their old high school friends and flames. The site eventually introduced a "Gold" membership, which allowed members to email their old friends.

Anthony Michaels was lured into the Gold membership after Classmates.com sent him an email saying that an old friend was trying to contact him. That turned out to be a marketing ploy, so Michaels filed a class action lawsuit for false advertising.

Classmates.com ended up paying $9.5 million — $3 per subscriber — in 2010.

13. That Airborne cures colds.

Airborne — marketed as "the one designed by a school teacher"— got failing grades when it became public that there were no studies supporting its claims to kill germs and bacteria that caused flues and colds.

"It was so bad," David Schardt, a senior nutritionist with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told NPR.

In fact, Airborne had as much effect on a cold as a placebo or a Vitamin C pill.

Airborne had to pay $23.3 million in a class-action lawsuit.

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