From the GH FAQ: “The Seal may be carried only by those products whose ads have been reviewed and accepted for publication in Good Housekeeping.” So when a product bears the seal, it just means they wrote a check and bought some ad pages.

Another classic example of “fake” awards are the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars. Those are also purchased by the star or by somebody else. They're not really an award. They're a purchase.

Yet another example are all the quotes from “Consumers Digest” magazine which accepts ads and money from the people using quotes from the magazine. If a product claims a Consumer Digest endorsement, it means money changed hands. This is of course not to be confused with Consumers Reports magazine which doesn't take money or anything else and doesn't allow anyone to quote them.