Puffery or just plain crazy?

I think it's safe to say I had never cared about, remembered, or even noticed an advertisement for Direct TV before just recently. It's a satellite company; which, naturally, isn't the first company I would imagine when I think of big advertising campaigns. I've mostly been blinded by advertisements and commercials for the "perfect" jean or the new Diet Coke product, and never really paid attention to ads that promoted such boring services as satellite cable. It wasn't until this summer while watching TV did I first notice a Direct TV commercial.

The commercial was one which, in summary, suggested that if you did not have Direct TV but have cable...you would inevitably have a grandson with a dog collar. It would have completed skipped my mind if it hadn't been such an unbelievable claim. No, if you don't have Direct TV you will not actually have a grandson with a dog collar. But the sheer fact that it suggested I would made it stick in my brain because of how ridiculous it sounded.

Direct TV Commercial

This very commercial came to mind when thinking about our next lecture on unethical advertising. Was the Direct TV commercial that caught my eye unethical because of it's outlandish and untruthful scenario? After all, it could be perceived as offensive to those who choose to wear dog collars as a style (right?). I found, after our lecture, that the commercial was not so much unethical as it was a "puffery". Puffery being a type of ad that makes such wild claims that a reasonable consumer would not be lead to believe the claims are truthful.

Puffery is an interesting concept in advertising because it gives products and companies the freedom to, almost, say whatever they want...so long as its unbelievable enough. Had Direct TV toned down there commercials just slightly they could possible be facing unethical advertising. Unethical in the sense that consumers might actually believe that if they don't have Direct TV big life changes will in fact take place. There is much more attention given to unethical advertisements in today's world because of the increased connection between consumers.  For example, if there is a commercial that might be unethical because its claim is false, the consumers have an effective way to let their dissatisfaction be known via social media. In the case of Direct TV and their 2012 campaign, the commercials are really dancing the line of puffery which is true of so many commercials on television. It is a trend in advertising today that the bigger and wilder the statement the more attention you'll receive, which is that exact goal of puffery as seen through Direct TV's.