This isn’t so much about writing fiction (or perhaps it was fiction) as something that caught my attention.
I have long been a proponent of truth in advertising. I was watching Cash Cab when an advert came on for a dating site. One of their claims was that people who used the site were three times more likely to find a partner than those who don’t. Almost instantly I found a interesting flaw in that claim, given that the human race survived for thousands of years without dating web sites. After all, most (>50%) people find a partner eventually. Since the advertisers don’t qualify the statement, their claim means that more than 150% (3*50%) of their customers find a partner. That is very impressive indeed. Maybe 75% of their customers end up with more than two partners.
No wonder I ignore most TV ads, muting the TV, leaving the room to do a quick chore or even changing channels.