Smoking Cures Lung Cancer?

It seems marketing directors are getting better at bending the truth in an effort to guide their victims to think whatever they want them to think.  There are two examples I’ve noticed recently.  Example one involves writing totally false statements followed by the all powerful “question mark”.  The use of the question mark in this regard I have concern with.  You may see a headline that reads something like:

“Smoking Cures Lung Cancer? “

This statement, if it had ended with a period, would be a complete lie given the fact that we know smoking does not cure cancer. In fact some may even claim smoking causes lung cancer.  However, when you add a question mark to the end of the statement, you are not making a claim, but rather asking a question.  Of course when you see the words themselves, you can’t help but wonder what the author is claiming, what the facts are, etc.

This is sometimes used in an effort to get a potential reader to read an article or better yet an advertisement or even a sales letter.  For example let’s say the advertiser wants you to read an article about their new coffee.  They could start their marketing piece with a headline like “Our coffee is great!” but you may see a headline like “Drinking ABC Coffee Cures Colds?”  With this headline how can you not want to read about it?  Of course in the marketing piece you will read something like “While drinking ABC Coffee cannot cure the common cold, our taste testers say it’s some of the best coffee they’ve ever had.”

Using this style of marketing may work well, but I do question its ethical standards.  It seems you could claim anything, even an outright lie that could have a negative effect on other person or company, but “as long as you add a question mark at the end it’s OK”  Not sure I agree with that thinking.

Another questionable marketing ploy I’ve seen recently was one used by a pizza company selling frozen pizza in the frozen food section.  On the box it stated in bold letters “Only 200 Calories”.  The pizzas of the same size above, below and next to the “200 Calorie” pizza were all at least 400 calories.

So how is it possible that this brand would be half the calories of all the others? Thinking I knew what they were up too, I looked at the serving size.  Sure enough the servings per container were 2 while the servings per container for all of the other pizzas around it were 1.  So was that innovative and amazing, a good strategy, or just a way for them to claim half the calories of their competitors without the added need to actually create a “light” pizza.

As someone who shares responsibility for the marketing pieces LocalTek produces , I believe I have to balance interesting and intriguing marketing pieces with factual and “above board” marketing principles.  I’d rather see a company go the extra mile and actually create a product that meets the needs of their customers rather than “work the marketing” in an effort to create an illusion they believe will have influence over their customers.  Then again, that’s just my opinion.  No offence to all the marketing gurus out there.

In summary, while I believe marketing involves accentuating the positives and downplaying the negatives, it is important, at least I believe, to be careful not to mislead your potential customers, it’s just bad business. I wouldn’t want to be the one who caused someone’s friend working to lose weight to eat a 400 calorie pizza thinking they’re eating half that.  I also wouldn’t want to be the one who started a bad rumor because the person who read my message didn’t notice the “question mark”.