John S. wrote to Mouse Print* about a beach ball he just purchased at Dollar General.
It was in a package that in big type indicated it was a 16-inch beach ball.
Upon closer examination of the fine print, however, John got an unexpected surprise.
*MOUSE PRINT:
The ball is really only about a 10-inch ball when inflated.
Who in their right mind measures a ball in its uninflated state to come up a product description? (A manufacturer who wants to make you think you are buying a bigger ball than your really are, apparently.)
That explains why the photo of the ball being held is an obvious photo-shop job.
How is it 16 x 5.9 inches deflated, wouldn’t it just be flat? What is the 5.9 inches?
Apparently this is the standard for measuring beach balls (who knew!): http://wallyinflatable.com/article/how-to-measure-beach-ball.html
Max: a flat object still has two dimensions, so call it 16 x 5.9 x 0.3ish.
I know what Max is asking, why isn’t a deflated ball just a flat circle? The answer is that a beach ball isn’t a balloon, so the material doesn’t shrink uniformly as it’s deflated. Instead, it flattens into more of a football shape, with material bunching/folding in the middle.
From what I’ve learned from the above comments, I see nothing deceptive with the description since the text is large enough to read even from a short distance. With “cmadler’s” link, we all now know that this is standard measurement and this company is astute enough to describe it that way.
I guess it is weird that the beach ball would be advertised based on deflated measurements, but I’ll give them a pass on this one. It’s still in the fine print though, so it belongs on the blog.
The more you know.
Sorry, but no pass for them, from me, for showing “deflated” size; which is an unexpected and contorted method of disclosure to legally pass that “hell hole a whistlin’.” Of what value to the consumer is THAT bit of information? None. A doctored picture is worth a thousand disclaimers. Why wouldn’t they otherwise shoot the actual, inflated ball being held by smiling little Johnny? I’ll stick with photo-shop eye trickery. Guilty.
In addition to that 16 inch beach ball only being 10 inches in size, it’s also a faked photo. The average child’s head or average torso size or average woman’s shoulder size etc. would all indicate that the ball the child is “holding” is far larger than the 10 inches indicated on the packaging. This seems to be not just “mouse print” but out-and-out false advertising.
If that beach ball is 10.6″ inflated, that woman’s head is about 6″