Tuesday, September 24, 2019

"studies prove" as puffery?

Sorry for the photo quality, but I was quite struck by the claim:
"Studies Prove That Live Shows Add Years to Your Life. Who Are We to Argue with Science?"

Query whether reasonable consumers would receive a "tests prove" message.  I do note that there is industry-funded research claiming that live shows improve attendees' well-being, which they then connect to lifespan--though "years to your life" is misleadingly based on the further claim that people with high well-being live nine years longer than people with low well-being, without any evidence that concert attendance takes people from high to low.  And of course it's pure correlation, rather than causation--I suspect that people who are able to regularly see live music differ in some significant ways from people who don't. But the advertising law question of perhaps broader interest: does the fact that there is a real study, however flawed, allegedly behind this bear on whether people are likely to receive a "tests prove" message?  As it turns out, this is a studyable thing.

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