In paragraph eight, the author mentions six basic techniques that can create the necessary illusion of superiority. So in the rest part of the article, it lists the six techniques.
When the first type of technique---“The Weasel Claim” appears before my eyes, my feeling is what a strange name! Weasel is a kind of animal. Why is it named by an animal? With this curiosity, I go on reading the passages. Finally, I find the answer. This kind of claim is compared to the egg-eating habits of weasel, which means that the good feeling brought by our first sight of the claim will be disappeared after our deliberation. Just like the egg, the inside is sucked out by weasel, but to the casual observers, it is intact. It is really an apt modifier.
Now, it’s the second kind of claim---“Water Is Wet Claim”. Again, the title attracts my attention. Of course the water is wet. After I read the whole paragraph, I know why it is called “Water Is Wet Claim”. Its claim is just a statement of fact without any specialties. In other words, it’s like saying that the water is wet, which is known by everyone. It is so common that doesn’t have a real advantage over the competition.
In reading the third claim “So What”, I was confused by the sentence “…gives no real advantage to the product” and the sentence “…it claims an advantage that is not shared by most of the other brands in the category”. Are these two sentences contradictory? After I read the samples carefully, it seems that they really have the traits that are not shared by other brands, but those are not the real advantages when compete with other brands in the product category. So its purpose is to bring us an illusion that only their products have such advantages, but actually these are not the real advantages as that in people’s mind.
At the sight of the fourth title “The Scientific or Statistical Claim”, I guess it must be a kind of claim that by the use of scientific evidence or statistics to make the claim more convincing and impressive. Generally, people are more sensitive to the figures than single words. As expected, my guess is confirmed. But in the process of my reading, one sentence confused me. The sentence is “Even the weasel ‘helps’ did not prevent the FTC from demanding that this ad be withdrawn”. It appears a little difficult for me to understand. When I consulted the reference book, I knew it means: although the word “helps” is fairly vague, the FTC considered that the claim was precise enough to be called a false claim and thus this ad had to be withdrawn.
The fifth kind of claim is “compliment the Consumer”. By its literal meaning, we can easily get the idea that this kind of claim is used to flatter the consumers. It flatters the customers by the way of praising their own products. In other words, it means that everyone will be the most glorious person in the condition of using their products. Making people feel proud of themselves after they watch the advertisement and then inspires them to buy the products is their aim.
It comes to the last kind of claim---“Rhetorical Question”, which is a technique that demands a response from the audience. In my opinion, it wants to give people a space of imagination and raise people’s interest to give a feedback to the questions.
That’s all of the six techniques creating the necessary illusion of superiority. Even now we have learned how ads work on us, or we avoid touching them consciously, we still can’t deny their influence in our life.
