Everyone knows that television advertising is designed to persuade the viewer to buy a given product. We are also all aware that television ads are, therefore, not likely to tell us the whole truth about the product in question. What many of us may not be aware of, however, are the increasingly sophisticated techniques with which advertisers now manipulate the television audience, and the extent to which advertisers are allowed to present misleading or unfounded product information. Deception by television advertisers and their manipulation of viewers' fears, desires, and even values are the topics which will be examined in depth in this paper.
In this age of deregulation, when broadcasters are free to bombard the audience with as many commercials as it will tolerate, it is not surprising that advertisers can get away with lying by omission or implication. A recent study of 1000 television commercials showed that 74 percent of advertisers claim that their brand is superior to all others. Of these claims, fully 58 percent are wholly unsubstantiated. In the advertising world, these unsupported claims of a product being the "best" or "finest" are euphemistically labelled "harmless puffery", and it seems that the Federal Trade Commission concurs since it has placed no restrictions on such claims.
Puffery is advertising's most commonly used fraudulent practice, but subtle misdirection and lying by omission is running a very close second. For example, a commercial for a well-known brand of aspirin says government test have shown that no other pain reliever is stronger or works faster. What the commercial neglects to inform the viewer is that the same government study also shows that no other brand is weaker or works slower - they were all equal. The same is true of the pain reliever's claims regarding effectiveness and amount of stomach upset. When an advertiser is truly desperate for a selling point, he may turn to irre...