Mucinex Fast-Max Cold Flu And Sore Throat

804 Words4 Pages
Joshua Washburn English 51-Essay 1 February 7, 2012 To Buy or Not to Buy? An advertisement for Mucinex Fast-Max Cold Flu and Sore Throat appeared in the January 2012 issue of Sports Illustrated. It is supposedly your remedy for the cold and flu. “Introducing your cold symptoms’ worst nightmare,”it reads at the top of the page. As you scan down the ad you see five green mucus monsters with plaid outfits and hats holding multi-colored cold symptom signs that read sore throat, sinus pressure, chest congestion, cough, and headache. Below and to the left, these mucus monsters that…show more content…
It’s a nightmare just to try and figure out how this cold and flu medicine is any better than anything else in the market. The advertisers put all these catchy phrases and meaningless words to make the consumer think they are getting a quality product. These words are called “weasel words “writes William Lutz, an English instructor and author of Double Speak.”” Advertisers use weasel words to appear to be making a claim for a product when in fact they are making no claim at all. Weasel words get their name from the way weasels eat the eggs they find in nests of other animals .A weasel will make a small hole in the egg suck out the insides then place the egg back in the nest. Only when the is examined closely is it found to be hollow. That’s the way it is with weasel words in…show more content…
They’re selling their best catchphrase. Charles A. O’Neill an independent marketing consultant in Boston. In this essay “The Language of Advertising” he writes “advertisers present information intended to show their product fills a need and differs from the competition.When product differences do not exist, the writer must glamorize superficial differences-for example, the packaging. As long as the ad gets our attention, the “action” is mostly in the words and visuals. But as we read or watch an ad, we become more involved”(130). This ad is a good example of glamorizing with visuals; it shows five animated figures being washed away by the Fast-Max Cold, Flu, and Sore Throat liquids. Just by the ad being animated it catches the of the reader. Even though O’Neill is on the side of advertising he shows how deceptive they really are and how observant the public has to
Open Document