DID you know that by the time an average American reaches the age of seventeen years he has seen about 350,000 television commercials? That is an average of more than fifty for each day of his life!

“Weighting” the Words

Each word in an advertisement is carefully selected for maximum thrust, yet minimum fact if proof is lacking. Advertising men themselves call these “weasel words.” Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines a “weasel word” as one that is “used in order to evade or retreat from a direct or forthright statement or position.” See if you can pick them out in this television soap commercial:

A winsome young woman tells you that the soap she uses ‘helps my skin keep healthy looking.’ Are you not left with the idea that this particular soap “keeps skin healthy”? But did you notice the weighted words? (1) “Helps” is a word often used to avoid saying that a product actually does something. (2) “Looking” changes the word “healthy” from a fact to an opinion​—that of the soapmaker. Almost any soap can make the same claim, but the sponsor is counting on you to think of his brand when shopping.

Now see if you can find any deception in this one: An expensive headache remedy is said to contain ‘twice as much of the pain reliever doctors recommend most.’ You are led to believe that this pill has a double portion of a unique doctor-prescribed pain reliever. But before you buy, ask a few questions: What is the nonprescription pain reliever that doctors recommend most? Is it not the only one legally sold over the counter​—just plain aspirin—​any brand? ‘Twice as much’ . . . as what? Much is implied, but little is really supplied. The wording of the claim as a whole is designed to mislead.

Words such as introducing, different, special, exclusive sound forceful, do they not? But the reality is that they usually play up very minor variations among products that are basically the same. Or they highlight differences that have nothing to do with function, such as an added lemon scent. Listen for facts about why the product is superior. Such facts are often missing.

“Only our television has Splendocolor,” an ad may say. Certainly. No one else can legally use a trademarked name. But most color sets have the same devices using another name. This air of mystery and exclusiveness sells, but mystery additives and exotic names are less informative than telling a small child that it rains because the sky contains H₂O. You can disregard them if no meaningful definition is provided.

Natural, lemon-fresh, clear, pure and similar words are riding the crest of a recent trend back to “nature.” They get massive exposure to advertise almost anything. Ironically, a magazine cigarette ad claims: ‘ . . . refreshes naturally! Rich natural tobacco taste.’ Can you think of anything remotely natural about swallowing smoke? Firemen wear masks to avoid it, and unaddicted people often wish they had such protection around smokers.

A prominent advertising executive, David Ogilvy, acknowledged the deception employed in such ads when he commented on television:

‘I see the handsome athletic young man drawing in a mouthful of cigaret smoke and then inhaling it down into his lungs, and I’m appalled to think that I belong to the profession which can perpetrate that kind of villainy. I see other cigaret commercials, which are written by what we call in our business “weasel merchants.” They are intellectually dishonest and the men who wrote them and who paid for them know it.’

Factual Advertising

The foregoing examples illustrate just a few methods at the disposal of advertising to mislead with words. They show how necessary it is to look beneath the surface to separate facts from opinions or emotional appeals. On the other hand, not all advertising misleads. Factual advertising provides a contrast. Notice the difference:

A heavy-equipment manufacturer’s ad points out both the merits and drawbacks of diesel engines to allay public misconceptions. It says that they: “pollute far less than gasoline engines even without special emissions attachments,” and they use less and cheaper fuels than gasoline equipment. On the other hand, they “cost a little more to make. When improperly maintained they smoke under load. And some people complain of odor and noise.”

Gas-mileage figures in some recent auto ads are certainly helpful in these days of fuel shortage.

Can you see how facts characterize straightforward advertising? Emotion and adjective “puffery” are at a minimum. It is mainly information about the product. The ad may not be as exciting but is that what you want? Advertising man Stevens says: “That’s the key to judging advertising. There is a direct, inverse proportion between the number of adjectives and the number of facts. To put it succinctly, the more adjectives we use, the less we have to say.”

He suggests that to avoid advertising manipulation “you must strip away the innuendos and try to ascertain the facts, if any. . . . ask questions such as: How? Why? How many? How much?” Other appropriate questions would be: Do I need it at all? Is it actually better than the products of less expensive, less advertised competitors?

But there is still another weapon in the advertising arsenal that must be dealt with.

The “Weighted” Setting

Imagine yourself driving onto a highway during rush-hour traffic. Your car falters as you start to accelerate​—this setting houses a recent television gasoline commercial. Do you see how it is weighted to influence you? There are two factors​—YOU and a SCARE. How real is the problem? If you forget the setting and use what we learned about weighted words, the commercial itself tells you. They call the problem “hesitation.” It ‘can happen [not “will happen”] when gasoline doesn’t get to all the cylinders properly.’ Their gasoline ‘can help cure THAT KIND of hesitation.’

But ask: Does my car hesitate? If so, is THAT KIND of hesitation MY KIND? Or is it a more common cause of such problems​—faulty fuel pump, dirty carburetor or need of a tune-up? Instead, the ad says a mystery additive ‘can help cure’ only ‘THAT KIND of hesitation.’ It is added to ‘help gasoline flow more evenly.’ The weighted setting gives many viewers more confidence in the product than the advertiser evidently has!

Another television commercial shows a cute little feline cub walking around, over and through a new car model while the announcer says it is ‘in a class by itself’ and ‘like nobody else’s car.’ Do you see the weighted setting in this one? In addition to (1) the obvious appeal to your pride, (2) what does a cat have to do with a car, or, for that matter, the well-known ‘tiger in your tank’ with gasoline? Only what the products can “borrow” from the natural appeal of these creatures.

Sex is the most abused of such “borrowed” appeals. Newsweek magazine of April 16, 1973, notes that “in advertisement after advertisement these days, the sexy sell is bold and brassy.” Alluring figures provide the setting for advertising everything from candy to concrete. Substituting a prominent athlete or film star serves a similar purpose​—to tie in the product with one’s enjoyment of the setting.