Weasels..

Reading Weasel Words opened my mind quite a bit. I have always noticed in the past while reading, listening or watching advertisements that they can be very misleading and vague. After William Lutz well defined and presented many different ideas and examples of weasel words made me question the authenticity or value of all the items in my entire dorm room. I agree with Lutz when he enlightens on the area of false advertisement. When encounter an ad that is trying to overwhelmingly convince you, it always puts questions in my mind. I view most ads as false advertisement, although in fact they are very much telling the truth. They are lying to your face about the factual meaning of the utilities or subject matter, while telling the complete truth by using these weasel words. One example I found was in my closet. I took out a bottle of Motrin, it is a kind of pain reliever. There is the first weasel word. It says “Pain Reliever/Fever reducer”, there is no way the public could know how much pain it will “relieve” or how much of the fever it will “reduce”. Also right on the top of the bottle it says” Value Size!”. Which makes us question how much “Value” is added for your money. I find myself losing confidence in products everyday because of these vague descriptions. William Lutz helped me now have a more independent thought process when it comes to buying in to an ad.

Jasper Newton