Copywriters use weasel words to plant an idea in readers’ minds that is bigger than the actual claim being made. Working from vague, indeterminate facts (or no facts at all), the copywriter can generate perceptions that may be completely at odds with reality, without making a definite, absolute or concrete claim that could be open to challenge.
But should you do it? Well, I have my own views on honesty in copywriting. But needs must when the devil dances. Whether you use these techniques is up to you!
‘Help to’
In conjunction with ‘can’ (see below), ‘help to’ positions your product or service as part of the solution to a problem without taking sole credit. For a copywriting example:
Crunchaflakes can help to reduce weight as part of a calorie-controlled diet
Of course they can. Any food can. With the calorie-controlled approach, it’s simply a question of adding up the calories keeping below a set target. The claim is very carefully delineated and hedged about by the copywriter, and is neither distinctive nor remarkable. But it lodges the idea of weight loss in the reader’s mind.
‘Can’ and ‘could’
Copywriters use ‘can’ and ‘could’ for indefinite claims that they want to sound definite. For example:
While traditional fan heaters have an average lifetime of 10-15 years, the RoomHeater 32 can last for decades.
Indeed it can, if used relatively sparingly. If used incessantly, its lifetime would be much shorter. Caveat emptor!
Hundreds and thousands
Look again at the example above. What period does ‘decades’ actually denote? Dunno, but it sounds like ages – just as words like ‘dozens’, ‘hundreds’ and ‘thousands’ sound like big quantities.
Strictly speaking, 101 is ‘hundreds’ – it’s 1.01 hundreds, which is more than one and therefore plural. If you’re uncomfortable with that, stick to 200 and above, which is definitely more than one hundred. ‘Hundreds’ sounds bigger than ‘217’.
Fractions
Closely related is the word ‘fraction’, as in ‘now available at a fraction of the original price’. 99/100ths is a fraction, but those reading your copywriting will think of the ones they learned at school, like 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4, which will make them think you’re offering a huge discount.
Relative improvement
Whiter teeth. Improved search engine rankings. Increased sales. Shinier hair. Whatever it is you’re offering to do, make it relative and unquantified, not absolute and specific. That way, even the tiniest improvement fulfils the promise.
Yes, of course my copywriting will increase your sales. I guarantee it. By up to 50%.
‘Up to’
‘Up to’ or ‘as much as’ are used when you want to add a numerical or statistical claim to your copywriting, but can only substantiate it within a certain range.
For example, you might be copywriting about a service that gets people tax rebates. Let’s say that on average, people get rebates of around 10% of their bills, but some have received 50%. Instead of quoting the average, or the range, you can say ‘customers have received rebates of as much as 50%’.
All you’re really saying is that the rebate is in the range 0%-50%, but it’s the upper number that will stick in people’s minds. Very few will infer the corollary, which is ‘some customers got nothing’.
Note that the ‘up to’ number must be honest: it may be unusual or exceptional, but it must be achievable.
‘Over’ and ‘more than’
Closely related to ‘up to’, ‘over’ and ‘more than’ make numbers sound larger than they are. For example, ‘over 50%’ sounds bigger than ‘51%’. When given a vague numerical range by the copywriter, people tend to overestimate. (If you want them to underestimate, use ‘under’ or ‘less than’.)
Watch out for using both ‘up to’ and ‘more’ together, which results in nonsense copywriting:
Save up to $50 or more!
Here, the $50 is neither a minimum or a maximum, just an arbitrary point in a completely undefined range. Although the audience may latch on to the $50, blurring the meaning twice means more confusion rather than more impact in your copywriting.
‘As much as’ and ‘as little as’
For a rhetorical twist, copywriters use ‘as much as’ or ‘as little as’ to imply that the figure they’re quoting is particularly high or low. For example:
The iPhone is now available for as little as $45 per month.
This suggests that $45 is low, but with no frame of reference to substantiate the claim.
Reported beliefs
Tom Albrighton is now regarded as the best copywriter in the UK.
Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? But who’s doing the regarding? David Ogilvy, or my mum?
The use of the passive case, which omits the subject of the verb, allows the copywriter to say something is being done without specifying who’s doing it. With verbs such as ‘thought’ or ‘believed’, copywriters can put out a claim that may be completely unsubstantiated, simply by saying that someone thinks it’s true.
Copywriters also use abstract nouns such as ‘concerns’ (usually ‘growing’), ‘speculation’ (often ‘intense’ due to being ‘fuelled’) or ‘allegation’ (probably ‘fresh’) to generate a sense that something’s cooking without naming the chef.
This ploy is very commonly used in political journalism, often to report an ‘off the record’ sentiment from a genuine source. A typical sentence might begin ‘Critics of the President now believe…’.
Consider the following quote from the UK Guardian, which brings all the techniques together in one sentence:
The disclosures will fuel growing concern that the prince is continuing to interfere in political matters when many believe he should remain neutral if he wishes to become king.
Who is concerned, and why will the disclosures fuel their concerns? Who are the ‘many’ who believe Prince Charles should remain neutral? What is the factual basis for saying that he might not succeed to the throne, or that his succession is conditional on his behaviour? What, actually, is being said here?
Nothing. But it sounds good.
Rhetorical reinforcement
Copywriters use words such as ‘clearly’, ‘surely’, ‘self-evidently’ to make a premise sound like a conclusion. These rhetorical words add weight to a statement that may have no basis in fact. ‘Surely the recession is now drawing to a close?’ It may be, or it may not – the copywriter hasn’t actually said either way, but readers think they have.
Unprovable superlatives
The CDs entitled ‘The best rock album in the world… ever!’ and similar highlighted the useful fact that superlatives are unprovable.
Suppose you start describing your firm as a ‘leading local widget maker’. Are you including firms who make other things as well as widgets? Or just widget specialists? Or just local widget specialists?
What’s more, how do you define ‘leading’? Do you sell most widgets? Make most money from widgets? Or just make the best widgets? Or are you just one of the best at making widgets?
It really doesn’t matter, because the only thing readers will remember is ‘leading’. They won’t be querying your definition.
If you’re still unsure about using your claim in actual copywriting, dilute it with ‘regarded as’ or something similar, or position yourself as ‘one of the leading…’. Does that mean one of the top 10? The top 100? The top 1000?
Or you could copy Carlsberg, whose addition of ‘probably’ to ‘the best lager in the world’ allowed them to float the most outrageous marketing claim of all (‘best in world’) in their copywriting without actually making it.
