Lies We Bought

About Lies We Bought

Lies We Bought is a podcast with receipts. Host Emily Rask spent over a decade building marketing and advertising campaigns, and now she's reading the fine print out loud (think everything from "got milk?" to "clean beauty") to show how the message got made and why we believed it. Part consumer psychology, part cultural history, part 1950s wink. If you love smart, myth-busting shows about advertising, branding, and the hidden tricks behind the stuff you buy, you're in the right place. Pulled fresh from the oven every Tuesday at 7 AM EST. Hit follow and start questioning the receipts.

Publisher

Emily Rask

Category

business · history · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Oct 2025

Latest episode

7 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

30 of 32 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   7 Jul 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The Customer Is Always Right: Ex-Bartender Confession

   Host Emily Rask explores the deceptive origins of "the customer is always right" and its impact on workers, sharing her personal bartending experiences.

2. 

   30 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Cash for Clunkers: How America Paid to Crush 700,000 Cars

   Host [Host Name] explores how the "Cash for Clunkers" program convinced Americans to destroy 700,000 cars, revealing the hidden costs and beneficiaries.

3. 

   23 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Book It: The Pizza Hut Reading Program That Sold More Than Pizza

   Host [Host Name] explores how Pizza Hut's Book It program leveraged developmental psychology and loss-leader economics to build lifelong brand loyalty in children.

Inside a recent episode

The Customer Is Always Right: Ex-Bartender Confession

Published 7 Jul 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] In Chicago, that man was Marshall Field. Field built his entire empire on a radical posture of customer coddling, unconditional returns, zero pressure browsing, and the phrase he was personally famous for, give the lady what she wants. Over in Philadelphia, John Wanamaker was pulling the exact same play. He pioneered the price tag, which sounds completely unremarkable today until you realize it meant that the price was the price no matter where you were, no haggling or lying. He even backed his goods with a money-back guarantee. Meanwhile, Sears was printing Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back directly into catalogs heading for rural farmhouses, homes that had been burned by traveling con artists for generations. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.8 / 5

65 ratings

Contact Lies We Bought

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Lies We Bought