You know how on PBS they usually say something like "this program was sponsored in part by viewers like you?" I thought "Viewers like you" was an actual company.

I also thought that TV was kind of like video, so that when i turned it off, i could turn it back on later and whatever show i'd been watching would start right where i'd left it.

Kris

My sister and I once insisted that my parents buy Mrs. Butterworth's Pancake Syrup, and when they did, we sat at the table and waited for her to talk.

That was a lesson about the truth of advertising!

Kresel

Until I was about 10 i thought that when, on tv, they said stuff like, in this compition there are 250 tvs up for grabs, that one person got them all. I always wondered what the hell i would do with 250 tvs...

Mrs Poynter DeLonge Armstrong Trott Murphy Bubbins Poynter Delonge Poynter

when I was about 5 there was this commercial for Circuit City and a big plug always plugged into the top of the building. I used to think it really did that and I wanted to go by Circuit City all the time to see the giant plug.
Its only been 8 years since I believed that.

Chichick

In Canada (and possibly elsewhere), there are back pain relief medications called Robax. They have a series of long-running commercials featuring wooden marionette-type people. In them, the marionettes do something active until needles pop up from their backs, representing back pain. I thought that you actually got needles coming from your back whenever you had too much activity and got back pain and Robax was used to pull them out.

Ouch!

As a child, maybe until I was about 7 or 8, I always wanted to send off for every special offer I saw on any kind of food or drink packet, whether it was for something I really wanted or not. I once saw on a bottle of tomato ketchup "Free from artificial colour and preservative". Because it had the word "free" on it, I thought it must be some kind of special offer. I was very disappointed when I tried to peel the label off and found no special offer underneath.

Alan, Sheffield

When I was little Ban deodorant just had came on the market and had a catchy tune"Ban takes the worry outta being close" Well I listened and went running into the kitchen where I told Mom"Beans take the worry outta being close" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Debbie

I used to believe that the wing on the Goodyear logo was of a hand pointing to the right. This was when I saw it from far away.

Davetista

One day when I was about 5 my grandmother was driving me to her mother-in-laws flat in Potts Point. When passing the Coca Cola sign in Kings Cross, I asked her what it said, she replied "drink your milk".

Daisy

When I was a young kid there used to be an advert on TV for Barrett Houses and the man would always say "The nation's second biggest house builder!". Naturally I was 110% convinced that our local house builder was THE biggest in the land. It was years later that I realised he was just a small builder who built just a few houses a year in our town.

Rick

When I was about 4 or 5, I used to see the Mrs.Butterworths commercials on tv, and the only lady that was the bottle would come to life. Well, whenever my mom bought it, I would sit with the bottle in front of me and try to talk to her. She never talked back :( False advertising to children is so mean!

Kendyl

The only ads I ever paid any notice to were toy commercals, which usually only advertised new toys. I believed for the longest time that only new things were advertised on television. I'll never forget the pepsi commmercial that made me realize my error...

Elisa

I used to believe the pillsbury dough boy lived in the "grocers freezer".I spent many a trip looking for him,the scary thing is I wanted to find him so I could throw him off the bed,I guess I thought it would stop his little laugh and make a cool splat?!

polly

I used to beleive on commercials when they would say "you have to be 18 or older to order" that means that the kids on the actual commercial were 18 and you had to be 18 to play with the toy.

Kryptonite

I used to believe tv commercials were not played from tape, but their actors had to perform live in front of camera every time the commercial was emitted. I remember how I wondered about commercial with group of kindergarten children listening to dentist and answering his question - "man, how poor they are, being such a child they have to play the same scene thousands of times and to do it completly the same each time" It was just one day when I realised, "Hey it is impossible to make perfectly identical moves so many times!" Then I said to myself "Ya fool, what are cassetes for!" =)

Ja Polak

Here in Germany we always had those adverts for cleaning agents. After the woman had cleaned the bathroom with them she was standing in front of a mountain. I didn't understand that this meant that the bathroom smelled as fresh as the air on a mountain after you've cleaned it. So I always asked my bother to buy it because I wanted to go on holiday on a mountain.

Anon

When I was a child, I used to believe that if you cut a person in a magazine with your scissors, it would actually hurt them.

Anon

Joe DiMaggio used to be the official spokesperson in the Mr. Coffee commercials, and not knowing who he really was- I thought his name actually was "Mr. Coffee"!

ajd

I saw a commercial that said, "Don't drink and drive", when I was 5. Later we were in the car and my dad was drinking a coke. I informed what the commercial said.

clevelandphil

When I was little, i saw the commercials for Walmart. The smiley face would go around knocking down prices. So whenever my mom would take me to Walmart, I would constantly look for the smiley face floating around, knocking down prices. It wasn't until I was about nine or ten years old that I realized the smiley face wasn't real!

Ashley