Truth, Lies and Perceived Truth

My new favorite spot is for P&G’s Olay’s Pro-X. As one member of our team noted: “What a convincing message!” It certainly can be. They claim to be as good as or better than prescription brands. They even back it up by claiming “per clinical trials.” Problem is the fine print. The spot has a black border (think the space around a widescreen format) with this tiny little writing. The tiny little writing isn’t important, right? Well, unless it tells you that the product advertised was not the one tested against prescription brands. What a sham(wow)!!!

As I blogged earlier, we want to say we are the best. We now have data that we can use to support that claim. We won’t even need to trick you with that sneaky fine print copy. We now have even added a footnote to the photos on the website saying that they are real and untouched. Does that mean those who don’t make that claim are messing with the photos? Likely! It’s fun to be able to tell the truth. Problem is telling the truth might not be enough. We still need to a life stage brand that understands the lifestyle. It seems like a shame that telling the truth might not be enough because of all the fine print in the category.

Thoughts?