In todays society, we can see the media and especially social media everywhere. It is the most effective means in influencing people’s mind. Since all companies exist to create profit by selling as many of their product as possible, they are able to take advantage of the media by creating advertisements. Unfortunately, most companies will say just about anything to sell their products. Because of this, there has been a lot of misleading and untruthful factors created in advertisements.
“Weasel words” (Lutz 127) are one of the ways that author William Lutz, in his essay, "With These Words, I Can Sell You Anything”, describe the terms or words that advertisers use in order to convince their customers to buying their products. This is one of the most deceitful things that is more than often found in advertisement. With these words, without breaking any laws, advertisers are able to make a product appear as if they are claiming something that might not be true. Thus creating a misleading or untruthful information. Although it is very smart for advertisers to be able to think of these words and to be able to legally trick consumers mind, it is still very wrong to advertise or state things, especially publicly, that simply isn’t true. “Help”(Lutz 128), is one of the “weasel words” that is use by advertisers to tricks the minds of the consumers that it will somehow stop, cure, or eliminate something. When in fact, helping only means that it will assist, or aid something, without the specification on how much it will help.
When creating an advertisement, it is better to put in factual information rather than creating a persuasive advertising with false claim. Informative advertisement could help companies sell their products witho...
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...cts works differently in different situations, so I can’t really expect too much of a product, but I do expect it to help in one way or another.
Overall, in todays world, we can see advertisement everywhere. Some of them might be truthful and some might not. In the end, it is up to us if we want to believe what we see in the media or to ignore it. I’ve been taught, when I was small, not to believe everything in the media, and to think for myself, to never let anyone negatively influence my decisions in life. Although, it is harder to do that now, as there are ways that the media can trick our mind with their choice of words or their methods of advertising. It is very important that we do our research before falling onto these advertisement and becoming a victim of false advertising.
Works Cited
"With These Words, I Can Sell You Anything” by William Lutz
Today, we are bombarded by messages; not just text messages, or electronic messages, but marketing messages. With modern technological advances, advertisers are competing for the consumer’s attention. When we are crowded by these images, we no longer recognize them and fall into their carefully designed traps. This behavior leads to more extreme tactics deployed by the mass media to catch the attention of its demographic. Eventually, the companies are producing and promoting propaganda. This trend is pointed out in the non-fiction book, Age of Propaganda: The Use and Abuse of Persuasion by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson. The two authors explain how the media and advertisers use a calculated formula to convince viewers and consumers to buy their product. The way advertisers do this so effectively is through using the “four stratagems of influence,” as coined by Pratkanis and Aronson. These stratagems are as follows: pre-persuasion, source credibility, message and emotions. Each section is a complicated and yet applicable device to influence and dupe consumers.
A person is subjected to numerous advertisements throughout their everyday lives via television, applications, radios and the internet. Due to the massive numbers of advertisements seen by the public, advertisement designers pose manipulative tactics known as propaganda techniques. As seen in the article “Propaganda Techniques in Today’s Advertising,” the author Ann McClintock states and lists the seven tactics of propaganda used and seen unknowingly in common advertising. McClintock shares “One study reports that each of us, during an average day, is exposed to over five hundred advertising claims of various types” (McClintock 205). This factor causes advertisements to incorporate propaganda into their selling of products. Two advertisements which are composed for opposite audiences do not only contrast but are similar in the form in which they are portrayed to the audience.
Every day people flip through magazines. Some read every page to enhance their knowledge of the surrounding world, while others are just going through looking at the ads. Many do not think twice about what is being said or expressed through the words and pictures. If people did, however, they would see the truth. We tend to base our product purchases on one simple idea: company advertisements and how they persuade us into buying their products.
Advertisements are tricky, and often deceiving. The marketing techniques implemented by various companies are meant to attract the consumers to their products, and simply get them to buy the product. There are ten distinctive methods that Jeffery Schrank notes in his article “The Language of Advertising” including the following: weasel claims, “we’re different and unique” claim, endorsements, rhetorical questions, the “so what” claim, the vague claim, the unfinished claim, the “water is wet” claim, the scientific or statistical claim, and the “compliment the consumer” claim. These claims are discussed in the subsequent paragraphs and example advertisements are given.
Out in the world, there is a concept, an object, an idea, a service, something that drives its viewers and audience toward a product, appeals to their interests, develops questions in their minds, and piques their readers’ interests; these are referred to us as advertisements. Advertisements can consist of many things, and advertise many things – objects, software, hardware, a service, a restaurant, a shower hose, etc., and advertisements are everywhere; it is very difficult not to run into one throughout the day. These advertisements are not created simply to present something and that’s it, but are specially and specifically made by professionals to be directed toward the audience that affect them in several ways, which the intended results
Communication is an essential and vital aspects of a person’s life, and something they will encounter on a regular basis. It comes in many different forms, and quite possibly the broadest and most powerful form is advertisements. Human beings are types of individuals that are hard to fully grasp their attention to make them focus on something, but advertisements have the extraordinary ability to do that. They are anywhere and everywhere; wither being shown on television, the internet, or being played on radio, they are impossible to escape. They are an extremely powerful marketing tool for brands and companies for a variety of things. From trying to sell a certain type of product, proving a point, or spreading awareness towards an issue, advertisements
Every year Americans are bombarded with thousands of ads for products that companies want consumers to buy, whether it is from the internet, television, radio, or print Americans see advertisements wherever they go. Thus, advertising companies have been using different advertising tactics to lure people into buying their products since, according to American Consumerism and the Global Environment, America became a consumer-based economy and society (“American Consumer Society”). Many of the tactics used by advertisers are considered deceiving and unfair. They use different techniques to attract our attention and get consumers to purchase their product. According to a handout provided by William Myers, there are two types of techniques used in ads: rhetorical and graphic (n.p.). Rhetorical techniques used in ads are the way that the advertisers can manipulate words to attract and convince consumers to buy their product. The rhetorical techniques that are used in ads are known as weasel words which, according to William Lutz, “Advertisers use weasel words to appear to be making a claim for a product when in fact they are making no claim at all” (309). Lutz is an English professor for Rutgers University who specializes in doublespeak and more specifically weasel words (304). While the rhetoric advertisers employ may make it seem like they want the consumer to get the best product, according to Stuart Hirschberg, “the underlying intent of all advertising is to persuade specific audiences” (227). Hirschberg is also an English professor at Rutgers University (“Profile: Stuart Hirschberg”). Graphic techniques used in ads are the ways the advertisers present the product to you and the image you see in the ad. In print ads, advertisers re...
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Have you ever been tricked by an ad? If you have you are not alone. Many ads today, including many older ones, sell their products by tricking their readers into thinking they have something special when in reality they don’t. They do so by using words that are easy to twist and turn to mean different things or that mean something different depending on whoever reads it. These types of words are commonly referred to as weasel words. Most of the time things like this are harmless, but sometimes they can end up making someone who does not have a lot of money spend what they have on something that doesn't do what they think it will.
Advertising has became a race, a race of passing information to customers in order to change their buying decisions. Because of that, it is difficult to keep the content of an advertisement true to the fact. Facts or benefits of a product are often exaggerated in modern advertisements. Brands create these new images of the product to expand the role of their actual service.
It is an unlawful act made by various parties of a specific good or service to inaccurately advertise their product, through false or misleading statements. (http://www.nka.com/practice-areas/consumer-rights/false-advertising-deceptive-marketing/) Advertisers should strongly evade advertisements that have the ability to deceive, regardless the fact that nobody may be deceived and the very first step is to recognizes those practices.
In today’s difficult economy who can afford to spend their hard-earned money carelessly? Americans want good quality and low prices, and businesses that advertise their product make saving money possible. Advertising was created for one reason, so businesses could make known their product (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). Some consumers may argue that advertising is not informative, but that it is manipulative because some advertisements make false claims. Fortunately, there are regulations and consumer rights that promote truth in advertising. Consumers must embrace their rights to keep advertising the way it is meant to be. Advertising is meant to be informative and not manipulative, and consumers play a great role in promoting truth in advertising.
Nowadays, advertisements are everywhere embedded in our daily life. They are powerful resources that inform people the latest news about a particular product or brand in many different ways. Most of the people are being able to get more information and detail of a product from media, radio stations, newspapers and internet. Even though advertising is a big informative source, it also can be considered as a marketing tool to control the mind and desires of the consumers to manipulate and persuade them to buy things they do not need.
Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.
Advertising is an information source to inform people about the products and new prices of the company which can help them to make informed choices. More recently, huge amount of money has been spent on advertising throughout the world. Different types of advertisement such as television, radio, magazine, newspaper, the internet, billboards and posters can influence consumer’s behavior positively or negatively as there are different arguments and opinions. This essay will focus on the purpose of the advertisement for the company, the positive effects and negative effects of advertisement on consumer behavior.