In a world where packaging can be as deceiving as a magician’s trick, we’ve compiled the most shocking examples of packaging designs gone wrong. From tiny products in enormous boxes to “creative” ways of making less look like more, these examples will make you think twice before your next purchase. Our investigation includes expert insights from packaging designers, consumer advocates, and marketing professionals who explain why these tactics exist and how regulations are evolving to protect shoppers.

The Trojan Horse of Office Supplies

If you want to purchase some super glue, be sure to check out the number of ounces in each bottle. Otherwise, you can end up buying what appears to be a larger container only to discover that it is the same size as the rest. This super glue container is just a little tube, but it is wrapped in so much plastic and paper that you would never be able to tell until you take apart the whole thing.

This is a genius piece of marketing, as anyone looking to purchase a bigger container of super glue will gravitate toward this option. But unfortunately, they might lose loyal customers over this deception.

Now We Know Why the Strawberry Wouldn’t Mix in When We Stirred It

If you ever wanted a refreshing fruit smoothie, this fruit smoothie would surely entice you with the colorful strips of blended strawberry presented throughout the entire cup. Unfortunately, you are likely to feel disappointed as you consume your beverage and discover that the red stripes of strawberry throughout the smoothie were merely the design on the cup and not an accurate representation of your drink. That was a nasty trick.

This is what happens when you take a chance on a new smoothie spot. You are setting yourself up for some massive disappointment. At least you’ll always have evidence of this betrayal.

Insurance Charged Her $56.91 for Pills or $2.73 for Capsules… With Pills Inside

Have you ever gone to the pharmacy and discovered that your prescription price has drastically increased? Well, that is the case here. This woman’s prescription used to go for around 3 dollars, but it now costs nearly 60 dollars. She probably expected this to be due to some revolutionary upgrade, but further inspection revealed the truth. The pharmaceutical company merely placed her old pill in a new capsule!

Imagine how shocked you would be to discover this price hike; now imagine how angry you’d get when you find that the price hike was for absolutely no good reason. Isn’t the company spending more money prepping the capsules they sell for less?

Good-Looking Books Shouldn’t Be Judged by Their Cover, Either

Getting hungry and picking up a quick, pre-made sandwich from the store is normal. What is not normal is wondering why the sandwich’s flavor disappeared after your first bite. How can this product even be allowed to be sold in stores? The presentation is misleading, and the product-for-buck ratio is entering the thieving territory. The entire sandwich has a single (tiny) slice of deli meat and a teaspoon of mustard.

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Thank you very much, but no, thank you. We will stick with making our own sandwiches at home after seeing this. We at least get two slices of deli meat there.

How Generous – They Left Room for Storing the Art

This brand decided to come out with its latest Super Art Coloring Kit edition. Honestly, it looks pretty impressive, with plenty of pencils and crayons to draw and bring to life any creation. Unfortunately, that illusion is shattered once you pop off the container’s lid. You soon discover that this container can only be described as a bald-faced lie. Guess you spend all that extra money on air.

It really makes you wonder about the conversation the marketing department had. Any professional looking at this would know that the customer’s expectation will not be met here.

Identical Ingredients and Quantities, Different Packaging and Prices

You’d be surprised by the massive variety of cold meds if you ever have a stuffy nose and stop by the pharmacy for some over-the-counter medicine. Sadly, you’d probably be too sick to realize that each box contains precisely the same ingredients, but that does not stop the companies that sell them from pricing them differently. The three medicines below all hold the same ingredients, the same amount of each one, and have the same number of tablets in each package. And while the same company sells them, they all have different “purposes” and are sold at different prices.

It makes you question what you are spending the extra money on. Is it because printing orange packaging costs more than printing blue-colored packages?

Snickers Yard (minus About Half a Yard)

The presentation of this Snickers yard-length box suggests a yard’s worth of candy bars hidden within. So when this person decided to purchase it, they felt satisfied that this would suffice. It turns out that their assumptions were wrong. While the box might have been a yard long – and the product has “Yard” in its name – the contents were a bit misleading as there was a massive, empty cardboard box in the middle of the pack.

Aren’t you glad you spent all that extra money on this jumbo-sized bar? Who wouldn’t be ecstatic about finding out you spent all that extra money on cardboard?

30% Product, 70% Packaging

This person decided to purchase some skin cream. Alongside the high-quality brand, they chose the container that offered the most product for their money. Sadly, their error in their thinking was trusting that the company was on their side. After a closer examination, they soon discovered that the container was shaped to hide that it only provided a fraction of the amount of the cream promised by the product’s packaging.

What a disappointment. Hopefully, they discovered this trick before they purchased the container and before they began to wonder how they were running out of skin care cream so quickly.

Flowering Cactus? Nah. Gluing a Flower Onto a Cactus? Oh, Yeah

Perhaps someone was looking for an exciting house plant and decided to go with a desert flower like a Parodia. When they came home, they soon realized they didn’t have some unique plant but just a standard cactus with a yellow flower glued on top. This one is crossing the line from deception to straight-faced lying. That is not a Parodia flower; that is a Cactus with a glued-on flower. Is that even healthy for the cactus?

How long was the company expecting this ruse to last? Sooner or later, the plant owner would notice that the flower doesn’t grow or act like a flower.

Not Even the Children’s Arts and Crafts Aisle Is Exempt

This box promises to be a massive container of various beads, but this company decided to use one of the oldest tricks in the book. The hollowing out of the box’s bottom to give the impression of a more filled container while only giving about half the perceived amount of product seems to be standard practice these days. And it sure works for the companies – until someone decides to check the container’s bottom, that is.

These companies believe that they are creating a product for a consumer, but the consumer will only be able to tolerate this game of deception for so long.