Viewpoint - Visual puffery in advertising

This Viewpoint piece discusses "puffery", what the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) defines as a ‘term frequently used to denote the exaggerations reasonably to be expected of a seller as to the degree of quality of his product, the truth or falsity of which cannot be precisely determined’.

Viewpoint – Visual puffery in advertising

Marc FetscherinThe Crummer Graduate School of Business (Rollins College)

Mark ToncarMarketing at Youngstown State University

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US defines puffery as a 'term frequently used to denote the exaggerations reasonably to be expected of a seller as to the degree of quality of his product, the truth or falsity of which cannot be precisely determined' (FTC 2004). The concept and use of verbal puffery in advertising research has been discussed extensively in the past few decades (Preston 1967; Preston & Scharbach 1971; Richards 1990). Puffed...

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