It seems somewhat ridiculous that he managed to convince five people to "invest" in his idea. I'm surprised the article didn't touch on what seems to be the larger point: Don't advertise things you don't sell. The ad was dishonest not because people actually expected a harrier jet, but because it tried to make a non-existent association between something "cool" and its product.

This is of course something very hard to legislate, but it still feels dishonest to me, more so than almost any ad seen today.