I've studied the use of language all my life; one of my areas of special study has been the use of language to deceive while pretending to communicate, eg: ads. (Note: politicians also do this, as well as pretending to communicate while saying nothing, but I'll talk about that another time.
There are a number of tricks that ads use to fool people, many of which are different kinds of bad logic, which I'll talk about later. Another popular trick is to use specific kinds of words, of which there are two main types:
Technical jargon: scientific-sounding words that the average person almost certainly doesn't understand, but which therefore lend credibility to the rest of the ad because if it sounds scientific, it must be real, right?
"Magic" words (my term): words that stand out from the surrounding words, such that the average audience will not perceive the latter.
Tonight, I want to talk about one of the latter type. Many ads for supplements, beauty products, and non-prescription medical devices use the word "clinically." This word is usually followed by "tested" or "studied." They are very careful not to use the word "proven," because for 99% of these products, that's not true. Advertisers are allowed to deceive by implication, but it's illegal for them to lie outright. And that's how magic words work: in this example, when most people hear the word "clinically," their brain automatically fills in the word "proven," even though the ads very specifically don't use that word.
Next time you find yourself having to sit through ads, amuse yourself by listening to how they phrase things, and see if you can find other magic words.
