You know what I mean. A variation of this appears in every advertisement for skin cream, lotion, medicated shampoo, parmaceuticals, over-the-counter drugs, makeup and sometimes cleaning products. The voice-over explains that the product is scientifically proven to strengthen your hair/cure your warts/whatever. This is accompanied by an appropriately sciency-looking, yet completely spurious and moronic, animation showing the product in action, in micro-scale.
Commercials in general annoy the crap out of me, but very little about them annoys me more than these things.
I was going to post examples, but I’m damned if I’m going to looking for them.
Heh. Thanks! That’s the phenomenon I mean. I wonder if there’s an inside term that ad-men use. Surely it’s so widely used by now that they don’t just say, “And throw one of those sciency-looking bits in there too!” every time they make a commercial.
I loved all the old antacid commercials when I was a kid. The outline profile of a man. The big tablet falling down his throat into the turbulence within his stomach. Like magic the burning liquid turns calm. And a guy in a lab coat explains it all.
I think Harlan Ellison ranted in ‘The Other Glass Teat’ about a gasoline commercial that made a phony claim about being scientifically designed to reduce pollution.
Yes, the psychological term used is appeal to authority. Even if it’s not a real authority, the meme of scientist conveys a position of authority, which people are wired to accept as being much much more convincing than other sources. Suits, uniforms, credentials, etc. all use the convincing power of authority to enhance compliance. It’s a specific type of compliance strategy, and pseudoscience, or even TvTropes aren’t as explanatory (nor experimentally proven) as the concept of appeal to authority.
I remember when Advil came out in the UK with a massive advertising campaign their shtick was: ‘No other over the counter product is clinically proven to be more effective’.
Without even looking at the ingredients it’s clear that that means they can only show it’s no worse than anything else. When I eventually happened to see a packet I was surprised to discover that it was nothing more than Ibuprofen - a drug that was available generically for about a quarter of the price.
The appeal to authority of science is evident recently in an ad for a prescription medicine, Obnoxia, or something like that. There are probably 8-10 different characters wandering around in various scenes, all wearing white lab coats. My fantasy is that one of these ads ends with the serious voice-over guy intoning: If you are stupid enough to think any of these actors are actually scientists, ask your doctor.
In the US, saying “nothing is better” in an ad is considered by the FTC to mean, “We’re as good as anything else” and doesn’t require anything to back it up. If you say, “We’re the best,” you need to provide documentation.
There’s also the “virtually” dodge. “Virtually” does not mean it actually does what it claims – “Our new lawn mower is virtually silent” means it makes noise.
I don’t know about the amazing animation in slow motion, but I’ve heard the term “white coating” used when the advertiser sticks an authoritative-looking person in a lab coat to explain how the product works.
There’s also the motherlode : “up to”. “Up to 70% more X” means it could just as well be .1%. It’s essentially meaningless.
Also, “new formula/recipe” means “something has changed in the product”, but doesn’t mean it’s something significant. Nor does it mean the product has changed for the better - putting sawdust in the cereal box would make it a “new recipe”.
An audience member at a Jimmy Carr show once said that an Indian restaurant in his neighbourhood advertised thus : “Try our curry, you’ll never get better.”
