Treat the truth carefully: It may seriously mislead

Using the example of a tourism advertisement for the island of Guernsey, Jeremy Bullmore discusses people's tendency to automatically apply scepticism to any advertising that they view.

Treat the truth carefully: It may seriously mislead

Jeremy Bullmore

Too much brutal honesty in advertising can have unfortunate consequences.

There's a full page colour advertisement for Guernsey in some of the Sunday magazines at the moment. I spent many of my growing-up summers on the north coast of Norfolk and the photograph of the Guernsey beach brought back many memories, not all of them fond.

Judging by the shadows, it's getting late in the evening. No one is swimming but there are two distant people tentatively standing at the water's edge, both seemingly well-covered. There's a brisk breeze coming...

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