THE MEDIA ADVANTAGE – A Marketing, Social Media, Web Design, Graphic Design, Video Production & Photography Agency – Lansing, Michigan

I’m pretty sure most of you have seen examples of puffery in advertising and maybe not realized it.  Some basic examples would be a restaurant claiming they have “the best pizza in Lansing”, or “the freshest ingredients”.  We see this kind of advertising used all of the time.  The Federal Trade Commission is in charge of monitoring deceptive and misleading advertising, but puffery is not against the law.  According to the FTC, consumers should know not to take these exaggerated statements seriously. I happen to agree and think that most of us are smart enough to understand what is fact and what is not. Now if a product or service claims to cure cancer for example, they better have some proof to back it up. If they don’t, the FTC would step in and take appropriate action.

There is a blurry line between puffery and misleading consumers with false facts, and advertisers must be careful as to what they say. Overall I think that there is nothing wrong with claiming to have “the best customer service”, because most of us don’t take these claims to heart. What are your thoughts on this kind of advertising? Have you ever been mislead by an advertisement? As an advertiser I would love to hear your opinion.