Hindsight is 20/20, and when I look back on some of the men who’ve fooled me in the past, I realize I should have known better. I’m talking about Ad Men. Not swarthy John Hamm ad guys, but those slick hucksters who took advantage of my innocence and naiveté just to get their paws on my piggy bank. When I was younger, those snake oil salesmen told me the Epilady would rip-out my underarm hair -- from the root -- painlessly, and I believed them. After several unreturned calls (and a few skin grafts) I knew I’d been had. I learned my lesson and more important – I learned how to dispute a charge on my credit card. (Thank you Discover for clearing up that erroneous charge for an Electric Snuggie. I’d never be stupid enough to order one of those, no matter how cold it was that night I drank an entire bottle of wine, shivering under my non-electric Snuggie.)

Women aren’t the only prey for those clever ad lotharios. A 26 year-old Indian man is suing Axe Body Spray for $40,000 because after using their product for seven years, he still hasn’t found a girlfriend. Vaibhaav Beddie is claiming that Axe’s racing marketing campaign lead him to believe the product would help him find his true love. Okay, I’m not sure those ads have anything to do with finding love per se, but I can see how a guy could get being groped by strange women in a dirty service elevator confused with love. So I’ll give Vaibhaav a pass, shame on you Axe.

I’m not angry with the ad men of my past because those missteps made me a much more sophisticated consumer. I’m grateful I’ve learned my lesson because now I only buy items with realistic product benefits. For example, I just bought a Tempur-pedic mattress so I can drink red wine in bed and not spill a drop while my boyfriend jumps up and down. Now I can safely drink wine in bed without the fear of spilling on my new Electric Snuggie.

That’s why I’m grateful I’ve learned my lesson.