Go On, Take a Puff

Do some ad tactics put consumers under the influence, or do they go up in smoke?

Can consumers see right through ads that tout unrelated or irrelevant product qualities—what researchers call “puffery”—or are they taken in by these showy tactics? According to researchers Allison Jing Xu and Robert S. Wyer, Jr. of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, often customers are actually put off by such persuasion tactics.

"In some cases advertisements describe technical details that are only appreciated by experts in the product domain to which the ads pertain," the study authors write. "Other attribute descriptions, however, may be puffery. That is, they purport to be of great importance but are actually inconsequential and often meaningless."

Using a series of ads, the researchers found that consumers’ levels of knowledge about a product influenced how useful or frivolous they considered ad information to be. When faced with ambiguous product information, study participants either perceived it as technical details that may be useful for people who are more knowledgeable about the product than they are, or they assumed that the details were provided merely to persuade, or puffery.

When potential customers perceived themselves as unknowledgeable about a product, they were less likely to judge product descriptions as puffery and more likely to perceive them as useful. Perceptions, therefore, were based on how much participants already knew about the product in question.   

Media context also plays a role in perception, the researchers add, but perceived customer knowledge still influences their decisions.

After manipulating participants’ perceptions of their knowledge about a fabric, researchers showed them an ad for a down jacket and had them evaluate the product.

"The results showed that when participants perceived they had less relative knowledge than average consumers, addition of puffery increased their evaluation of the product no matter whether the ad came from a popular magazine or a professional magazine," the authors write.

"When participants perceived they had more relative knowledge than average consumers, addition of puffery increased their evaluation of the product when the ad came from a professional magazine, whereas decreased their evaluation when the ad came from a popular magazine," they explain.

What place, if any, does puffery have in advertising?

“I write lots of online ads that use the simplest kind of puffery there is—listing technical features and specs in a way that guarantees that they'll be skimmed, not read,” says marketing consultant Byrne Hobart of NY-based Blue Fountain Media.

“This has the advantages of ‘puffery’—you can imply that there are many specific reasons to want a product, without enumerating them—plus it gives a more patient consumer a chance to dive in to the details,” Hobart explains.

Can the average consumer spot puffery, and if so, are they still persuaded to buy?

William C. MacLeod, partner in the Advertising and Marketing practice at Kelley Drye, says it is pretty obvious. "Here is classic puffery: We are the best! You'll love our taste! You'll look sexy in these clothes! Food fit for a king and queen," he says.