Truth in Advertising?

PerformanceEng wonders: "I work as an engineer for a large technology company in the U.S., and have been privy to what I find a interesting practice. It's well known that marketing data sheets often paint the best picture of a product while leaving the devil in the details. I've come to expect this, and when I am evaluating technology, I always have a skeptic's eye for claims made by the sales and marketing folks. However, I've also witnessed our product go into test labs (usually for the purposes of running a series of tests for a 'bake off' in a trade publication). Not uncommon is the attempt to 'tune' the configuration of the device under test to perform in the best light (not unlike tuning your car to pass emissions tests). I have seen it go as far as exploiting weaknesses in the test that, if the test operator discovered, would be considered bad faith. To the other engineers: Are you aware of this kind of practice at your company? To the IT professionals: How much faith do you put in these sorts of publications and their 'bake offs'? To everyone: When does spin doctoring cross the line and become false advertising?"

Comments

Re:Peer review

[krautcanman]

To answer your question of false advertising, I would say keep to the standard that most of us scientists do: Specifically, peer review and ensure that your results can be duplicated by said peers. If results cannot be duplicated, then it is false advertising.

Even science has a problem of touting the best data and "leaving the devil in the details." Research is driven by money just as much as industry. If you're not producing good results, you won't get funding.

Truth - Advertising?

[IamGarageGuy 2]

As a person who worked in the advertising business side, I can say wholeheartedly that truth in advertising is a complete misnomer. The whole concept of advertising rejects the idea of truth. I don't sound bitter do I?

Re:Truth - Advertising?

[gad_zuki!]

>I don't sound bitter do I?

No, you sound practical. Advertising usually affects the reptilian part of brains, preying on our patriotism (truck ads), vanity (gyms, makeup), greed (everything), etc. Its shameful there aren't controls on corporate "free speech" as McDonalds and others hire child psychologists to craft effective ads for their unhealthy products.

This is the golden age for ads. They're everything. Every webpage, above the urinal, people aren't very skeptical and have disposable incomes, the art of creating a working fad/meme is getting perfected, celebrities are manufactured from scratch, etc. And this is what people want.

The problem is two-fold. People, in general, need to take a good look at their consumerism and corps need controls on what they can and can't say. I'd like to see informative ads telling me cost, MPG, etc but a typical car ad is all mom, america, and apple pie stuff.

Similiar post over at nerdfilter today. The video is hilarious and worth watching.

Analyze, analyze, analyze

[rackhamh]

This isn't just a phenomenon in the IT arena. Have a look at medical journals some time... You have to be VERY careful when putting stock in the findings of studies -- the first thing to check is who *funded* the study.

I think it's just a fact of life: everybody wants their product to be seen in the best light, and to sell well (in the case of commodities or services).

That's why Amazon.com has reader reviews, sites like epinions.com exist, and Slashdot has moderator points. It's also why there are hardware review sites -- we can't just trust the manufacturer's PR now, can we?

So, people may be inherentely biased and often untruthful, but with proper monitoring (read: community involvement), the truth will out.

"Yes, None, Ten years ago"

[dbarclay10]

Yes, I've seen this sort of thing at other places I work. It's inherently dishonest. It's justified via a) claiming that it'll help sales (dubious), and b) claiming that everybody knows that they're bullshit anyways. Note that the two justifications are mutually exclusive. Doesn't stop them from using them though.

No, I trust none of these "bakeoffs". Or any other IT advertising for that matter. There isn't a single mainstream IT rag which is even marginally trustworthy. Go ahead and, instead of reading just the bakeoff that you're looking for, read an article about something you already know about (through hands-on experience with all the primary alternatives, including a FOSS alternative if it's software and there is a FOSS alternative). Note how much stuff they get wrong, how shallow the article is, and how it almost reads like an advertisement. The same is true for cars too, largely, at least from what I've read. I can't comment on other industries since I'm not particularly familiar with their trade press. Note, however, that I still don't trust them at all - I expect they're just as bad. It's just that I don't make enough decisions relating to those industries' products to warrant reading the trade press - instead I go to the store and carefully examine the alternatives.

This sort of thing crossed the line into fake advertising at least a decade ago. Companies routinely make absurd claims and get away with it. There's just no political interest in enforcing it. At best they'll include fine print in their ad. If it's a print ad, maybe you'll be able to read it. It's been a while since I've seen an ad with fine print whose fine print didn't take up at least 10 lines of extremely small type. Television ads are a joke, it's impossible to read the fine print at broadcast resolution, regardless of the size of your TV, and it typically takes up a whole screen.

What can we do about it? Elect governments with some spine. These sorts of advertisements will continue to be successful so long as people are poorly-educated, and people will continue to be poorly-educated unless there is a strong collective agreement in place that says "yes, everybody needs some minimum level of education, otherwise they're prone to manipulation and our society is controlled by those who control the media or the other forms of information dissemination." It's funny, isn't it, how political campaigns in the US almost exclusively take the form of commercials? (Except for the "debates", which are a joke to everybody outside the country.)

Note that when the US was founded, everybody who advocated democracy made sure to point out that the requirements for democracy included an educated public, free speech, and free press. People have totally forgotten the education bit and the press bit. (A government-controlled press is no more effective at disseminating important information than a press controlled by an aristocracy - corporate or otherwise.)