Ads today use propaganda and empty words to trick consumers into buying their products. In the essay “With These Words I Can Sell You Anything” by William Lutz talks about weasel words and how they give empty meaning to consumers into buying a product. Weasel words are words that give the illusion that means something but mean nothing or don’t make sense. In the second essay “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled” by Donna Woolfolk Cross talks about the different terms used in propaganda/advertising like Glittering Generalities, which means associating a product/person/place with good names. An ad that uses all these techniques is a Nike ad advertising a new nike soccer shoe. The ad takes place on a soccer field in a soccer stadium during the night time. In the background you can see the bright stadium light shining on the famous soccer athlete known as Neymar Jr, dribbling a soccer ball and wearing the Nike Mercurial Vapor 8. He is so fast and explosive that he leaves a explosive dirt in his trail. In the middle of the ad you see the words “Explosive, Speed” and in the corner “The New Vapor 8” . This Ad is the prime example of using a combination of weasel words and propaganda to sell their soccer cleat by making the consumer think that it is the best soccer shoe of all time.

In “With These Words I Can Sell You Anything” by William Lutz talks about the words and phrases that companies use for advertising their products. Lutz tells us about weasel words. “Advertisers use