William Lutz’s “Weasel Words” brought up points that I was not surprised to read, but regardless were very interesting and provoked further thoughts related to advertisement from me. I think a very relevant debate in our society today, is should the advertisers or consumers be held accountable for product purchases. It is true that all human beings have free will and hopefully common sense to not buy certain products, but should the average person be able to identify when a product is misleading them? Not only has advertisement sneakily integrated deceiving language to sell their items, but also created commercialism that often can have a subconsciously profound emotional effect on potential consumers. We can see enterprises like McDonalds’s playing into warm nostalgic childhood memories and Apple seemingly displaying a promised cool image with its product purchase. Is it too drastic to say that consumers cannot avoid spending millions of dollars on these companies because the appeal is just too strong? I think this statement is a little extreme, but I believe that a person that is not educated on the usage of deceptive language, images and ideas in advertising is very susceptible to buying products and having unfulfilled expectations. It would be unrealistic to say we can rectify the deception in the advertising world, but we can realistically implement more education on the subject so that people can be more informed on their purchases.
-Maya Barnes
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