Today, I had a craving for donuts. It's been a long time since I'd had donuts, and I wanted Krispy Kreme donuts. I know for sure of only one place that sells these donuts, mainly because I've seen the sign they have outside, which is a gas station. I had to drive across town, but I wanted what I wanted, so I was glad to do it.

I got there and walked around, and couldn't find the donuts. I asked one of the people who worked there where the donuts were, and she told me they were out of donuts. I said to her that I drove all the way across town to get donuts, and she said they usually run out of them late morning.

Well, I was irked. I mean, to me, that's false advertising. You don't put a sign on your establishment, and I'm not talking about a poster on the window, it's a big sign just under the sign that's the name of the gas station, advertising that you sell these donuts, knowing that you may only have donuts for 6 hours out of every 24 hours. And they are open 24 hours a day; it's definitely a serious customer service flaw.

Many years ago, I went to a place locally called Steak and Sundae, where the specialties, supposedly, were their large, grilled steaks, and their ice cream sundaes. They lived up to the press when it came to the meal; the steak was tender and tasty, and relatively big, for a pretty good place. However, when I was ready to order a sundae, I was told that they were out of ice cream. I asked how a place advertising sundaes runs out of ice cream, and she didn't know, which I can understand. Once again, I felt like it was false advertising, and I didn't have dessert there, telling my wife that I was geared up for ice cream, so we went to a different place for my sundae.

It's not only store front companies that exhibit a lack of truth in advertising. Many job listings are falsely leading people to believe the jobs are something they're not. Under the "management" section of most newspapers across the country, there are listings for managers who want to own their own business, and it turns out to be advertisements for either MLM companies or direct marketing jobs, where people will (and most of them actually will) be taken advantage of in some fashion, believing in a dream that wasn't their dream to begin with, and being left more distraught and upset and embarrassed than before they picked up the phone to call and learn more about the position. It's hard to get past evasion, which is how they talk to people on the phone, and follow your gut instinct that something just doesn't sound right, when you might be desperately looking for something you hope will be positive. For years, this was Amway's way of getting people "interested", though I'm not sure if they still do things that way anymore.

I believe truth in advertising is one of the most important things for any business to be able to sustain itself. It's imperative for individuals also, because sometimes, you only get one shot to try to get it right. When approached by someone earlier this morning about a potential project, I told him I wasn't skilled in that particular area, because I'm not. On Monday, I told someone the same thing. Sure, I could have probably done both, but I'd have been learning on the job, and that's not fair to anyone who's paying me good money to protect their investment.

Truth in advertising; that's my business call of the day.