The Good, the Bad, and the Airbrushed: A Review of Puffery in Advertising

Abstract

As the economic outlook forAsean nations steadily improves, marketers are poised to flood each developing market with their goods and services. Advertising will become an indispensable mechanism in accelerating awareness, acceptance, and distribution of these offerings. However, if history bears witness, as the level of advertising increases so will its scrutiny and subsequent criticism. For example, advertising will almost certainly be implicated in the escalation of consumer prices and in the corruption of societal values. These criticisms have doggedly pursued advertising in its journey about the globe. However, other more subtle and pervasive advertising excesses will also be identified as competition for consumers’ limited resources intensifies.

One form of advertising ‘practice’ that will likely gain industry adoption and a healthy share of criticism is the phenomenon of puffery. Puffery is the use of gross hyperbole or of nebulous, subjective claims in advertisements. From a cursory examination, it already appears to be well represented in those markets that have adopted a quasi-western style of advertising (eg, Singapore and Malaysia).

This paper examines the issue of puffery from both a consumer response perspective and a regulatory perspective. Furthermore, the paper briefly traces advertising regulation in the United States, suggesting that the genesis and widespread use of puffery there is a response to augmented governmental powers and stringent industry regulation. Hopefully, this exploration will assist policymakers in Asean nations to affect advertising regulation from a prudent, proactive stance rather than a non-strategic posture, which could seriously fetter economic development.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael E. Steele

Dr Michael E. Steele is with the Department of Public and Promotional Communication, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.