100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
WRT 101 Weasel Words Assignment $11.99   Add to cart

Other

WRT 101 Weasel Words Assignment

 8 views  0 purchase

This is a comprehensive and detailed assignment on weasel words for WRT 101.

Preview 2 out of 8  pages

  • October 6, 2024
  • 8
  • 2022/2023
  • Other
  • Unknown
All documents for this subject (15)
avatar-seller
anyiamgeorge19
Weasel Words
by William Lutz

William Lutz has spent much of his professional life examining the words used in
law, politics, and business to discover how words are used to mislead without
lying. He has also written extensively to try to educate people about this
misleading language, which has been called ‘double-speak.” Lutz defines
doublespeak as “language that pretends to communicate, but really doesn’t. It is
language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the
unpleasant appear attractive or at least tolerable” (The New Doublespeak, 1997).
In this excerpt from his book Doublespeak (1990), Lutz describes one type of
doublespeak – “weasel words” – and shows how different types of weasel words
are used by advertisers to encourage people to buy products.



1 One problem advertisers have when they try to convince you that the product
they are pushing is really something different from other, similar products is that
their claims are subject to some laws. Not a lot of laws, but there are some to
prevent fraudulent or untruthful claims in advertising. Even during the happy
years of nonregulation under President Ronald Reagan, the Federal Trade
Commission did crack down on the more blatant 1 abuses in advertising claims.
Generally speaking, advertisers have to be careful in what they say in their ads, in
the claims they make for the products they advertise. Parity claims 2 are safe
because they are legal and supported by a number of court decisions. But
beyond parity claims there are weasel words.
2 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 egg is examined closely is it found to be hollow. That’s the way it
is with weasel words in advertising: Examine weasel words closely and you’ll find
that they are as hollow as any egg sucked by a weasel. Weasel words appear to
say one thing when in fact they say the opposite or nothing at all. “Help” – The
Number One Weasel Word




1 blatant: obvious
2 parity claims: claiming a product is equal to other similar products

1

, 3 The biggest weasel word used in advertising doublespeak is “help.” Now, “help”
only means to aid or assist, nothing more. It does not mean to conquer, stop,
eliminate, end, solve, heal, cure, or anything else. But once the ad says “help,” it
can say just about anything after that because “help” qualifies 3 everything
coming after it. The trick is that the claim that comes after the weasel words is
usually so strong and so dramatic that you forget the word “help” and
concentrate only on the dramatic claim. You need to read into the ad a message
that the ad does not contain. More importantly, the advertiser is not responsible
for the claim that you read into the ad, even though the advertiser wrote the ad
so you would read the claim into it.
4 The next time you see an ad for a cold medicine that promises that it “helps
relieve cold symptoms fast,” don’t rush out to buy it. Ask yourself what this claim
is really saying. Remember, “helps” means only that the medicine will aid or
assist. What will it aid or assist in doing? Why, “relieve” your cold “symptoms.”
Relieve only means to ease, alleviate, or mitigate 4, not to stop, end, or cure. Nor
does the claim say how much relieving this medicine will do. Nowhere does this
ad claim it will do anything at all. The ad only claims that it will aid in relieving
(not curing) your cold symptoms, which are probably a runny nose, watery eyes,
and a headache. In other words, this medicine probably contains a standard
decongestant and some aspirin. By the way, what does “fast” mean? Ten
minutes, one hour, one day? What is fast to one person can be very slow to
another. Fast is another weasel word.
5 Ad claims using “help” are among the most popular ads. One says, “Helps keep
you young looking,” but then a lot of things will help keep you young looking,
including exercise, rest, good nutrition, and a facelift. More importantly, this ad
doesn’t say the product will keep you young, only “ young looking .” Someone
may look young to one person and old to another.
6 A toothpaste ad says, “Helps prevent cavities,” but it doesn’t say it will actually
prevent cavities. A liquid cleaner ad says, “Helps keep your home germ free,” but
it doesn’t say it actually kills germs, nor does it even specify which germs it might
kill.
7 “Help” is such a useful weasel word that it is often combined with other action-
verb weasel words such as “fight” and “control.” Consider the claim, “Helps
control dandruff symptoms with regular use.” What does it really say? It will
assist in controlling (not eliminating, stopping, ending, or curing) the symptoms
of dandruff, not the cause of the dandruff or the dandruff itself. What are the
symptoms of dandruff? The ad deliberately leaves that undefined, but assume
3 qualifies: limits
4 mitigate: to make less severe

2

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller anyiamgeorge19. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for $11.99. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

71498 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling
$11.99
  • (0)
  Add to cart