What Value Does Puffery Have For The Advertiser?

By Author: Apple
Total Articles: 55
Comment this article

A hyperbolic claim is not protected as mere puffery, however, when it claims an at-tribute the product does not have. An ad cannot claim that a candy bar is the finest chocolate if it contains no chocolate. An ad cannot claim that margarine is a dairy product. A puffed statement in an ad is in effect a no falsifiable claim. But if falsity cannot be proved, then neither cans truth.

So what value does puffery have for the advertiser? The advertiser benefits when we take the subjective claim to have objective Cartier Replica validity, when we assume that there are criteria governing the determination of the quality claimed and that someone is assuring us that the quality as claimed exists. Puffed statements, however, should be treated as bald assertions of superiority with no evidence to back them up.

For example, the NAD concluded that the claim "Europeans .. . love Kronenbourg" was an expression of the opinion of the manufacturer and "not subject to substantiation by objective research data," but that the claim "Europeans drink more ...
... Kronenbourg than any other bottled beer" was a factual claim requiring proof. When the advertiser provided sales figures from the European brewers' association confirming that Kronenbourg was the best-selling bottled beer in Europe, the NAD concluded that the claim had been substantiated and closed the case.

An ad may not promise something a product cannot do, and the FTC now has the power to force advertisers to include statements remedying past deceptions in current advertising. That is why Hawaiian Punch told us in one series of ads what percentage of its product is fruit juice, and Listerine conceded in its ads that it does not prevent colds.

Fantasy No reasonable person believes that a cleaning product comes with a giant who will clean your sink, or that its competitor releases a white tornado. The rationale for permitting such claims is the same as that permitting puffery: reasonable people do not believe such claims. The difficulty arises when some consumer believes the claims. If you believe that a support shoe will really enable you to walk on air, and you buy the product expecting to be transported above the crowd, the ad has deceived you. Nonetheless, the law assumes that you should not have been deceived by the fantasy in the ad because its claim is patently ludicrous.

The NARB's treatment of the Chicken of the Sea claim that it was the "best" tuna illustrates the bounds of a claim based in Omega Replica Watches fantasy. When Chicken of the Sea made the claim "in a whimsical jingle involving a mermaid," it was acceptable. When the mermaid was eliminated or deemphasized, "Thereby diluting the whimsical quality of the claim," and the claim "What's the best tuna-- Chicken of the Sea" was juxtaposed with a visual image of a government seal, the NARB concluded that the ad had the capacity to deceive. The ad's use of the seal, available to any seafood manufacturer who maintains the required quality, implied that Chicken of the Sea had government endorsement as the "best" tuna.