Language, a tool of communication, is a tool of deception. The average American home owns at least one television and the thing we can all agree is commercials in between shows are a pain to watch. The amounts of commercials in a single show is unbearable, nevertheless, it is one of the most effective marketing strategies companies use. If you happen to pay attention to commercials, you may see just how tricky advertisers can be. More than ever before, advertisers go beyond to alter the truth to try to convince us their product is the best using language techniques to make claims.
The article “Politics and the English Language”, discusses how English is used to deceive its meaning. Orwell says conflicts within English arise from mistakes writers make. He says that English language “becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the
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This is perhaps the most common type of deception in advertising because it is easy to get one’s product to look great. You simply just display the best features and leave out the relevant information. These kinds of commercials use “real” people to give testimonials of how the product worked for them and they never say anything bad about the product. The companies most likely pay these people to say positive comments about them. For instance, in a diet pill commercial if a person says that they lost 100 pounds in 12 months, they do not say that they combined it with vigorous exercise and healthy eating. They give all the credit to the diet pills and take out other major key factors to the weight loss. They persuade viewer’s using phrases such as “it worked for me so it can work for you,” which appeals to the viewer’s emotions by making them excited to try the product too. The consequence is the viewer only thinks the pills will help them lose weight and may be discouraged when they see they are not losing any