The Games Advertisers Play Ad Critique

The Game Advertisers Play with Costumers

Do you want to "discover the #1 secret to rapid weight loss"? (Cosmopolitan, 2006, 209) According to the ad I chose to do my ad critique on, the secret is Lipo 6 liquid capsule manufactured by Nuthrex Research. I picked this ad, which I found in a Cosmopolitan magazine because of all the promises the product makes without any concrete information and credible source. This particular ad targets young women who want to lose fat and benefit from a better appearance. With a little help from testimonials and puffery, Nutrex research can appeal to someone who is overweight or not happy with their current physical appearance.

The use of pictures and testimonial statements made by people who claim to have used this product is the first feature that is seen by the consumer, since there are pictures of three women in the ad. The ad shows four pictures of two women demonstrate how their body changed after using the product. The ad claims that one woman use the product for sixty days and the other woman for twelve weeks. The predicament with this claim is that it is nearly impossible to know if that timetable is accurate. Another picture, which is bigger than the picture of the product being advertise, shows a woman who is in a very good shape lying down on a towel at the beach. The problem with this picture, unlike the other pictures, this female model current fitness level misleads the costumer by implying that he or she will achieve a similar level of fitness if the costumer uses their product. This ad uses costumer's lack of confidence in their self-image. There are plenty of cases where pill users should have never taken that type of pills if we take into considerations weather or not they were considered overweight. "Diet pill users between 1996 and 1998, 25% were not overweight before using pills." (Khan et al, 2001, 282) Along with misleading pictures, the ad also uses puffery in order to make their product look more genuine and make the costumer buy the product being advertised.

Puffery gives the wrong impression about the product by making it look more authentic and valid. Puffery uses misleading information to make inaccurate claims appear accurate. Claims such as "rapidly burn," "maximum strength or "fast-acting" (Cosmopolitan,2006,209) promise a fast, spectacular and easy treatment that makes the product look impressive, despite the fact that all those statements are left to interpretation