PHI445 Week2 Discussion 1

In advertising today, there are many misconceptions and falsity in advertisements. We are exposed to countless commercial messages every day persuading us to buy brand name products, creating images for us to adopt, and convincing us that we need and want more. Because of this, it's important for us to carefully examine ads to determine exactly what they are saying. Advertisements can be very misleading and it is not fair to the consumer. Advertisers will make claims about their product or service to convince the consumer because consumers are influenced by advertisements urging them to purchase products that they may or may not need or want. While many of these advertisements honestly inform and educate consumers, some are false, deceptive, and even illegal.

To be considered puffery in advertisement would involve an exaggeration that no reasonable person would take as factual, (Fieser & Moseley, 2012). To sell their products, advertisers try to make them look as good as possible, this is where the puffery or exaggerations comes in. This can involve the use of puffery and weasel words. Puffing is the use of opinions and exaggerated statements. The words better, best, greatest, and finest are typically used in puffery advertisements. The information is not intended to be factual. All three of the following advertising claims use puffery:

"Coke is it."
"The best part of waking up is Folger’s in your cup."
"Hoover makes the most powerful vacuum cleaner in America."
In each of these slogans a weasel word is used in advertising to make a claim look legitimate to the casual listener or reader.
Deceptive advertising can be defined as misleading the consumer to buy your products and services. An example is the campaign used for Dannon's yogurt Activia. Dannon’s advertisement tea lured consumers into paying more for its nutritional benefits, when it was actually pretty much the same as every other kind of yogurt.
Dannon falsely advertised using the terms