Does Advertising Have an Ethical Responsibility to Society?
varying degrees. Exaggerations, or “puffery” can give the FTC and advertisers both a run for their money. Historically, claims that were “mere exaggerations” or “hyperbole” were considered to be puffery, and therefore not deceptive. Terms like “the best” or “the greatest” were sales talk, and the FTC would not regulate them. After all, everyone knows that “Wonder Bread” is not really a wonder, and “The Greatest Show on Earth” is not what everyone considers the greatest. Puffery, therefore, was a form of opinion statement, and considered unregulatable. For the observers that have expressed concern that the “puffery defense” was a loophole through which many deceptive claims fell, the Commission has been criticized for allowing deceptive claims to slip through under the guise of puffery. On the other hand, the FTC has defined puffery as claims that (1) reasonable people do not believe to be true product qualities, and (2) are incapable of being proved either true or false. Consequently,
