h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

While I'm not marketer, I do have an appreciation for accuracy when using language whether to sell a product or rant about deceitful advertising.

The English language is pretty flexible, often incorporating several meanings for words. The order makes a big difference in the meaning, and so does the punctuation. A recent contract threatened to cost a company over a million US dollars because of a misused comma.

When some advertiser says "New and Improved (name of product)", they are violating common sense as you point out. It cannot be both New and Improved; but, if they right "New, Improved (name of product)", no violation has occurred.

This usage merely says that the product is a New (of recent origin and production) product that represents an Improvement (made more desirable by revision, addition, or change) of their previous offering. So, this usage is perfectly defensible.

I think that the more common problem is the lack of critical thinking and language skills of the average consumer. They 'allow' themselves to be drawn to products that seem to offer greater benefits then the consumer could reasonably expect.

The act of decieving can be active or passive. One can outright lie and say "this drug will give you eight hours of restful sleep" (when that could never hold true for every person and instance), or simply suggest that it's within the realm of possibilities as in "this drug can help you get eight hours of restful sleep".

This is where I believe that marketers earn their living, the offer of unrealistic hope based on a willingness to misperceive the true nature of the offering.

But, it's not lying.

Ah yes, good old advertising.

And then you have the outright false. Look up "Ribena" on Wikipedia. Advertising that it had 4 times the Vitamin C of oranges - when it turned out to have much less than a plain orange fruit drink [and then trying to get out of it by saying they were only talking about the fruit itself, not the product they sell -- hah! that sure wan't the intent of the advertising I tell you - I used to see it (on TV I think) and you certainly got the idea that the product had 4 times the C!]. I don't know if its true or not [maybe just more advertising] but I heard someone in the company's advertising department just made the statement up off the top of their head at some marketing meeting.

And another version of the product had basically no (zero!) Vitamin c at all (while advertised that it did).

Take everything they say in sales with a pinch of salt - I tell you [hmmm - no smiley for salt as far as I can see - never mind].

Now THAT's deceptive advertising!!

A big, old, fat pinch of salt there!