Weasel Words

I found Lutz’s “Weasel Words” to be very thought provoking and interesting. It was interesting to see just how many ways our media tries to manipulate us into buying certain products. I had previously noticed claims in advertisements that seem to mislead consumers, yet I had no idea that there were so many different terms that contribute to deceiving the public. After reading “Weasel Words” I immediately began thinking about the immense amount of ads that contain these words and phrases. Then I thought about all of the times when I have fell victim to such illusions while purchasing products, it’s so easy to miss these common words that devalue many products. I’m sure that from now on I will notice when companies use weasel words to sell more, which will most likely result in saving a lot of money and time.
It almost sickens me to see how sneaky the media and companies can be. They give us the illusion that they want to help us by creating helpful products, yet their sole intention is to fool us so that they can make more money. Furthermore, what is the most upsetting is that millions of people buy into it. You would think that after purchasing “new and improved” merchandise and realizing it’s no better than the previous product, that we would stop believing phrases like this. Unfortunately this is not the case, companies continue to find other methods of manipulation, and the public continues to fall into their traps.