You know those glossy whole-page
advertisements for beauty products in magazines?
They make all
sorts of claims to show you how great whatever they’re selling is.
‘Clinically-proven.’
‘Recommended by dermatologists.’ ‘No testing on animals.’
But it
seems that the vast majority of those claims may not exactly be true.
80 per cent, in
fact, according to a new US study published in the Journal of Global Fashion
Marketing.
ScienceAlert
reports that researchers from Valdosta State University pored through magazines
from April 2013 and assessed 289 full-page cosmetic ads.
They put these
claims into various categories, including environmental (claims about animal
testing, for instance), endorsement (recommendations by professionals) and
scientific (‘clinically proven’).
A panel of
judges then ranked and classified each advertisement claim as ‘outright lie’,
‘omission’, ‘vague’ or ‘acceptable’.
Though much
of the public already approaches advertisement claims with a healthy dose of
skepticism, what the judges decided was still significant.
Just 18 percent
of the claims were deemed ‘acceptable’ by the panel.
‘Deception not
only undermines the credibility of advertising as a whole by making consumers
defensive, but also produces damaging effects for the advertisers who are
directly responsible for making the claims,’ one of the study’s co-authors told The Telegraph.
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