Recently I’ve been seeing many commercials on TV for a company that is attracting inventors to invest in their service. They say that it is easy for inventors to get inventions pattened and submitted to companies, making it seem like it is easy for any invention to become a reality and profitable. However, in the fine print, it is mentioned that it is easy to get inventions pattened...if the inventions meet a set of guidelines to qualify, and that most inventions do not get a pattent. The original statement is vague because the whole story is not provided, and the consumer is led on.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Vague Sentences
Vague sentences are sentences that are usually misinterpreted becuase the wording is misleading. This makes it difficult for the audience to make sense or believe the statement. Advertisments are a good example of this. The companies they advertise are trying to make a profit off of people, by leading them on and influencing them to spend money on their product. Their choice of wording can make it seem like their product will be helpful, while not promising anything that the buyer might have inferred.
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I thought it was a good point on how companies use vague wording to mislead customers into making purchases, or using services that they would otherwise not do. This has been a problem for as long as there has been advertising, which is why we are always having to enact laws, which are put in place to help regulate what companies can and can’t say about a product, and how much information must be supplied to the consumer. I definitely think that there needs to be much tighter regulation on how companies phrase things regarding their products, and more transparency in terms of what information is given to the consumer for any given product.
ReplyDeleteI think you made a great observation about how companies use vague statements to mislead customers. Big Companies often have specialists skilled in creating deceptive advertisements, and such advertising often goes through testing groups and critical analysis in order to achieve the desired effect. I did like what FedEx said about how there should be some regulation in place. It is surprising about how a company can go on tv and say that their product is “the best” and such. While most adults have critical thinking skills to think for themselves, kids are very susceptible to this information and this a major reason the toy market is a very profitable business with the right advertising.
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