Generally, when purchasing an item from a vending machine, the items on display are a pretty fair indicator of what you will receive. The worst that can happen is your selected item becoming stuck—right?
One customer of a vending machine is sharing her strange experience of purchasing a Canada Dry brand ginger ale only to receive a can of Walmart store brand Great Value ginger ale.
In a video posted to TikTok, user @whowannasmokewitme shows over 300,000 viewers that she received a discount version of the brand name product advertised in the display window of the vending machine.
“Thinking I’m about to get me a Canada Dry, and look what come out,” she says in the video. “This ain’t Canada Dry. They don’t even look alike. What is this?
The Daily Dot has reached out to @whowannasmokewitme via TikTok direct message and a comment on the video.
In response to a viewer who suggested that the poster had staged the video, pulling the Great Value branded soda can out of her bag or pocket, the TikToker created a follow-up video showing that the substitution for the advertised beverage was made when she purchased the soda a second time.
“I wish I was lying, but I’m not,” she says in the video. “I’m about to get another one just so you can see. See the number on that, now watch this. Before you say I’m capping, I don’t have anything on me, no soda, nothing, I don’t got nothing on me. I have to stop the video because I have to use my phone to make the transaction. Now, let me show you…141…now watch what come out. Do this look like it came from the crib?”
Some viewers questioned why the poster was upset, jokingly or not, because either way she received a ginger ale.
“You got what you wanted ginger ale is ginger ale,” one commenter wrote.
“It still says ginger ale don it,” another added.
“Ginger ale is ginger ale, I don’t see the problem here,” a third said.
The poster replied to several commenters that she would not have had a problem receiving a Great Value ginger ale in the place of a Canada Dry brand one, if the price had not be $2 per can.
“Idgaf what it say, this a 25 cent can of soda, they charged me almost $2 for it,” she wrote. “& I expected Canada Dry & got this. Foh.”
@whowannasmokewitme I just kno its one of #us behind this 🤦🏾♀️😅🤣 I’m a lil upset but its all love 😂🫶🏽 #fypp #canada #dry #gingerale ♬ original sound – Beauty & The Beats
Is this vending machine falsely advertising?
This customer’s experience may be another example of false advertising under the Federal Trade Commission’s definition of the practice. Per the FTC, advertised goods and services must be truthful and not misleading. By advertising a Canada Dry branded can of Ginger Ale on its machine and supplying a Great Value branded can to customers who purchase it, the operator of the machine may be participating in false advertising, under these regulations.
Other viewers wondered if there were similar substitutions for the other beverages shown in the case.
“Dr.pepper gonna be dr.thunder,” one commenter wrote.
“The Fanta orange is probably cheap Walmart soda,” another joked.
“Instead of coke is it Sam’s Cola?” a third said.
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