Is marketing stupid, or are Americans stupid?

I work hard to avoid commercials and the fluff you see on the newscasts, but it's not possible to avoid it all. There are a number of things I hear often that just drive me nuts.
"Open 'till 2 A.M. or later" or "you can save up to 40% or more".
STOP IT!! "up to" and "'till" are words that put a limit on the thing being discussed. Why has this caught on? Does the "or more" or "or later" make stupid people think "oh man, I gotta gets me some o' dat" because of the wording?
Then, on the sensationalist news reports I heard this morning "there are only days left before the black box from the lost 777 will stop pinging." Really? According to the manufacturer, there are about 3 weeks or so until the batteries run out. Yes, 3 weeks is about 21 days, but saying "there are only days left" really makes it seem like it's very, very soon. I mean, there are only days left 'till I turn 100 years old. In reality there are about 21,500 days left.

Ok, one more thing. I love watching home-improvement shows but every time I hear the word "space" it makes me cringe. On This Old House they'll say "what are you going to do with this space" when referring to a particular room. To me, a space is a less defined area. One of of the episodes, the dork was referring to ONE SPECIFIC KITCHEN CABINET and said "you'll be putting a new door on this space, right?" I almost came unglued. It's actually worse than when a homeowner was giving a pre-project kick-off tour of the house. She walked into what we would call a mud room and said "and here's the mud space..."
I will never be the same after that episode. My wife and I were going to make a drinking game out of the "space" word on TOH, but we realized we have three kids, and consuming gallons of booze in 24 minutes will get our kids taken away. So, there you go. Some of my miscellaneous rantings and whining. Sorry no, you will not be able to get that time back.

To answer your question: Yes

In reply to GameboyRMH:

DAmn. Beat me to it.

As someone who is involved with Marketing and am of the "Murican persuasion, yes. Lots of marketers think we are stupid and therefore provide stupid marketing. The sad thing is that they are right.

I won't even start in on what I think of a large number of the journalism community (no one here, FYI. You guys are the bees knees).

DrBoost wrote: I work hard to avoid commercials and the fluff you see on the newscasts, but it's not possible to avoid it all. There are a number of things I hear often that just drive me nuts. "Open 'till 2 A.M. or later" or "you can save up to 40% or more". STOP IT!! "up to" and "'till" are words that put a limit on the thing being discussed. Why has this caught on?

The first one makes logical sense - "until 2 AM" is the earliest closing time across the board. However, different locations (or different days at the same location) may be open later. I don't have a problem with that one because the 2 AM is not an arbitrary point on a continuum - it is the earliest terminus of the range of closing times.

The "up to 40% or more", on the other hand, bugs the crap out of me as well. There, 40% is just something picked out at random and they're saying that the expected results will be less, equal to, or more than 40%. Well, DUH.

Additionally "fractions of an inch" can mean over an inch!

The other one that really bothers me is a commercial that asks you to call within the next fifteen minutes or other nonsense.

GameboyRMH wrote: To answer your question: Yes

I didn't even realize the stupidity of the american people was in question?

Buy three tires, get the fourth one FREE!

If we can't beat their price, it's FREE!

My favorite "sales guy schtick" conversation in recent memory involved a tire warranty. It said "Free replacement for just an additional $12.99 per tire!". I tried to buy it for just one tire because, you know, I can actually buy just one tire by itself and how often would I destroy all four? It seems you can't do that no matter how many times you quote their own markting material to them

Grocery stores, "you saved x dollars" - no I didn't, I just spent Y dollars and because I used your card, I didn't have to pay a penalty. Don't get me started on downsized packaging... harummmph

Duke wrote:

DrBoost wrote: I work hard to avoid commercials and the fluff you see on the newscasts, but it's not possible to avoid it all. There are a number of things I hear often that just drive me nuts. "Open 'till 2 A.M. or later" or "you can save up to 40% or more". STOP IT!! "up to" and "'till" are words that put a limit on the thing being discussed. Why has this caught on?

The first one makes logical sense - "until 2 AM" is the earliest closing time across the board. However, different locations (or different days at the same location) may be open later. I don't have a problem with that one because the 2 AM is not an arbitrary point on a continuum - it is the earliest terminus of the range of closing times. The "up to 40% or more", on the other hand, bugs the crap out of me as well. There, 40% is just something picked out at random and they're saying that the expected results will be less, equal to, or more than 40%. Well, *DUH.*

There's a financial adviser that advertises on the radio here in town with this line: "If you have at least $250,000 or more to invest". My blood pressure goes through the roof.

Also, you don't have less than 15 items at the grocery store. You have fewer. Meijer is the only groceryish store I've ever been in that had that one right.

working here at the casinos in AC.. Caesar's Entertainment is one of the worst. Everything is a generic name with "The" in front of it.

The Pool
The Pier
The Entertainment Venue
The Parking Garage

soon they will just rename one "The Casino"

How about reverse mortgages...

This muddy vagrant dressed as the Statue of Liberty so they didn't have to sell blood two days in a row certainly imbues me with confidence that this is the place to handle my tax preparation!

As a copywriter, I can say that the ads I write start sounding a lot like what you're talking about once legal reviews them. Lots of "You have to say this, but you can't say this" kind of input.

"one of the best selling products" - You mean NOT the WORST selling? Because THAT is what that means!

"we are only offering 10, to the next 10 callers" - ... as you hear this EVERY day....

(customer testimonial): "Wow, this is a Ford (chevy etc.)!? - Soooo, you are telling us you normally sell sh$% but THIS TIME you got it right?!?!

Yes, all those things are stupid, but it's also really easy to ignore them.

95% fat free.

"No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." - H. L. Mencken

Save at least 5 or $6000.

Oh, or what about the label that says 100% Orange Juice on the front, but then lists three or four things as ingredients. Here's a hint: If you put Citracal in it that's fine, but it's not 100% juice anymore.

In reply to wae:

100% Juice™

dinger wrote: "No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the record for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." - H. L. Mencken

H L Mencken is one of my minor deities.

L-O-W-E-S-T COMMON DENOMINATOR

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: This muddy vagrant dressed as the Statue of Liberty so they didn't have to sell blood two days in a row certainly imbues me with confidence that this is the place to handle my tax preparation!

The sign just says refunds.... nothing about how well they prepare... or IF they even prepare... all they are saying is tax refunds

I studied Architecture at the University of Florida. They pretty much force you to use the word "space" to describe every room or area of a design. I'm sure other design schools are the same. Gotta make yourself sound important, ya know? I was pretty annoyed by it myself.