Sometimes you get the feeling that large corporations think we're complete morons.  Or perhaps "blathering sheep" is the more apropos term.

"I don't know, Griggs.  This might impact long-term sales."

"Oh, nonsense, JB!  The blathering sheep will never even notice!"

Like that?  Probably not far off.

I'm sure they use code words, though.
 

A few years back, Charmin came up with a very clever idea.  It unquestionably made them a pile of money, and all from preying upon common human nature.

They made their new brand of 'Ultra' toilet paper twice as thick.

Pretty clever, eh?  We didn't actually sit there hauling out our 3000X electron microscopes to read the fine print and see that it was twice as thick, we just saw the word 'Ultra' and figured it was newer and better so we bought it.  More the fools, we.

People are just slaves to habit, after all, so even though you know you don't need as much TP when you're taking it off the roll because of its double thickness, you still take about the normal amount, thereby grabbing twice as much as you normally use.

I just whiffed through my first roll.  Then poof!, the whole package was gone.  Living alone by my little itty-bitty self, these things usually last me months and months.

So what did I, Mr. Prudent Shopper, do?

I memorized the color of the 'good' stuff, of course, which was red.  See the nice package?

Then the years passed.
 

I'm moseying through the ol' grocery store the other day and note that 'TP' is on my list.  I grab the red package of Charmin and proceed through my list.

And what do I discover when I open the first roll a few days later?
 

It's now twice as thick.  I did exactly what their ad people said I'd do — reached for the red package without looking.

Can you say the ugly word betrayed?

What a magnificent example of sheer, unadulterated greed and a desire to trick their customers in any way they can, just to make that extra buck.  Betrayed is the perfect word.  Now, every time either the subject of TP or unethical business practices comes up, I'll be right there with this story.

How ironic that the greedy bastards who run Charmin turned out to be the biggest asswipes of all.