leadpages

• Second, too-strong words and phrases might also raise the performance bar for your company’s prod­ucts or services more than you might like. If something were to go wrong with one of your products (let’s say), and then it turned out that the product didn’t actually measure up to your too-strong “categorical” statement, that fact might have undue influence on a judge or jury.

Let’s look again at the hypothetical advertisement above for a WhizBang vacuum cleaner. Suppose that in reality the WhizBang vacuum cleaner always left some particles of dirt behind — and now suppose that those left-over particles later caused someone to have a fatal asthma attack. What effect might the categorical statement in the advertisement have upon a judge or jury? Does including the “every particle of dirt” language really do that much to improve the effectiveness of the advertisement?

• Finally, if you use superlatives about your product or service, and then later on you figure out how to do it even better, someone could claim that your earlier product or service didn’t deserve the superlative after all (because you yourself managed to outdo it), and so why should they trust you now?