Integrity in advertisements

All these ads about skin creams making you whiter than before, detergent powders cleaning your clothes cleaner than before, shampoos making your hair silkier than silk got me thinking about one thing. Do these ad agencies actually show what the product claims? Does the model - whose hair looks as if the dog has just had its afternoon nap in it - really wash her hair using the shampoo and make it smooth as silk? If so where did the ad agencies pick up such a model with hair like candy floss? Or if not, how did they manage to get her looking like that?

I've thought about this after I saw an ad of floor tiles, where a man picks up spilt ice-cream from the floor and gives it to his wife, who unknowingly eats it and enjoys it too? What is this? I mean I understand what the message the ad was trying to give, but the execution...? Would anyone in India knowingly pick up food fallen to the ground and eat it? I think not.

This question comes up mostly during ads of cosmetic and grooming products. The most blatant of these - the fairness creams and the toothpastes. I don't have any experience of the former but I can comment on the latter. I've been using a toothpaste which claims to make your teeth whiter in 30 days. Assuming that the average 75gm toothpaste tube lasts for a month(?), I can say that I've used up two of these tubes without any marked improvement in the whiteness of my teeth. Yeah, my gums have surely become more redder, and my tooth brush needs replacing. This makes me wonder how in the world do the models on TV manage to whiten their teeth in a matter of 60 seconds? Beats me.

The bottom line of course is that why should the actors have any qualms about doing ads which exaggerate beyond a limit as long as they're getting paid? I guess I have a lot to learn about economics.