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From: cberry@muddcs.UUCP (Craig Berry)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: Re: Ambiguous Advertising
Message-ID: <321@muddcs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-May-85 22:49:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: muddcs.321
Posted: Tue May  7 22:49:52 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 11-May-85 02:03:02 EDT
References: <> <448@nmtvax.UUCP> <829@mhuxt.UUCP> <418@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Reply-To: cberry@muddcs.UUCP (Craig Berry)
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Lines: 36

*** REPLACE THIS LINE AT YOUR OWN RISK ***

>
>Personally, I always wondered about the commercials which claimed that
>Ivory is "99 and 44/100 per cent pure".  If it's well-mixed, it's either
>pure or it's not.  Is there a little corner of the bar/bottle that has
>some impurities in it, or what?
>
>-- 
>
>--JB                                                  "The giant is awake."

 I seem to recall that the 99.44 % pure figure was derived by an ad agency
which totaled the percentages of ingredients listed on the Ivory Soap
package.  Each of these was given with two places to the right of the
decimal point.  Rounding error resulted in the sum of all listed percentages
being 99.44 %.  The ad agency used this number as a measure of purity.
Sorry, I don't remember the source on this.

 Just think--if the rounding error had accumulated in the other direction,
we could have "Ivory Soap--It's 100 and 38/100 percent pure!"

 And now the obligatory joke:

 Q: "How many USC football players does it take to change a light bulb?"

 [add annoying ^L here]

 A: "One, but seven get credit."


                                  - Craig Berry

{allegra!scgvaxd | ucla-cs}!muddcs!cberry
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