With all the big lies built into the system, you'd think people would be a little wary of information proffered in three-page fold-out splashes in magazines, or the advertising glitz on TV. Instead, they rely on the Consumer Protection Agency and truth-in-advertising laws.
Truth in advertising must be the original oxymoron. What auto manufacturer is going to tell you the truth about their product, a veritable time bomb of precision-engineered breakdowns. "The starter and the alternator are set to fail just after a hundred thousand miles. If you change the oil every week, you might get a little more before the valves go. But isn't she pretty! No, not the blonde. Of course she doesn't go with the car? What kind of business do you think we're running. But hey, boy, you can go out and get your own when you hit the bright-lights-at-night spots in this chassis. Though, if you're stupid enough to take a woman who is sizing up your car home with you, you deserve what you're going to get."
No, they won't say anything like that. It's too close to the truth. What is utterly amazing is that the kind of thing they do say seems to be working. The mailbox wouldn't be full of defective hyperbole every day if somebody wasn't reading it. Any businessman has the sense not to believe his advertising agency's figures, so lots of people must be buying what they get blitzed with. This should tell you something about human nature. Shocking, isn't it!
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