The best advertising informs and entertains. Occasionally, though, it misleads and hides. We're all used to hearing the fast talking legal mumbo-jumbo on the ends of car ads. Those terms are mandated by the Federal Trade Commission. But maybe we'd be better off to leave 'em off. They don't do anything except make the dealership look like they're trying to pull a fast one. It would be easier if folks would pay attention, but they don't.

We have legislated ourselves to make complicated purchases easier to understand. Then, in the process of covering all the legal bases, we've lost everything we've been trying to accomplish.

Take the computer ad I heard recently. The price sounded attractive, until you got to the disclaimer. If you were paying attention, you discovered you'd be paying over 25% interest on this purchase. That kind of rate used to be illegal.

On an ad I saw for a national LASIK center, the bold type read, "Virtually 100% success". Virtually means almost. Almost is not 100%. Of course, there was an asterisk following that statement, but the footnote to which it referred had magically disappeared. Maybe they thought people with poor vision would never read it anyway.

The point of all these ads is - they DON'T want you to pay attention too closely. Some car dealerships put the disclaimer in front of their message, hoping you'll think it was for the previous spot. Many billions of dollars are spent each year on advertising trying to get your attention. But I would wager that a good part of that money is spent trying not to get your FULL attention.


Thanks for reading


Ron Harper--November '02

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