Bad Math? Or Miracle Toilet Paper?

I have math issues. And I feel the need to blog about them. Sorry, but I need to.

Let's start with some basics.

Just say I had 10 books.
What if you had 4 times as many books as I had? You'd have 40 books.
And what if you had "4 times more" than I had? You'd have 40 books MORE than me. So you'd have 50 books.

Are you following me so far?

Now what if you had "4 times less" than I had? Technically, there's no such thing as 4 times less. But what if there was? Well that would be 40 LESS than I had. If I had 10, you'd have negative 30 books. Maybe your best friend borrowed 30 books from the you? I have no idea. But mathematically, if you had 4 times less than 10, you'd have -30. "4x less than..." is not the same as "one-fourth of..." Four times less than a positive number is always a number less than zero.

So when Charmin's new ad says that if you use Charmin, you'll use "4x less" vs. the leading discount brand of toilet paper, do they really mean that if I buy Charmin I will use a negative number of sheets of toilet paper? I'll be able to not just use less toilet paper... I'll be able to make toilet paper? Because I'm having a little trouble believing that once I switch to Charmin I'll start magically shitting out clean sheets of toilet paper every time I go to the bathroom.