puffery

２ヶ月振りにジョッギングをしたら、フルマラソンに出た翌日の様に足が痛い。若くないので少しさぼると筋肉が直ぐに衰えるのを実感しました。英語も離れたら忘れるのでしょうね。
さてThe Art of ChoosingのI, Robot?の章の一節を引用します。
Nothing on the Crystal Geyser bottle actually claims that its water is of higher quality, or tastier, or fresher than what comes out of your kitchen tap, or out of the bottles of competitors. There may be "a difference," but what is it and compared to what? The legal term for this tactic is "puffery," which the Federal Trad Commission (FTC) defines as those subjective claims that "ordinary customers do not take seriously."
Puffery includes the hyperbole of the Energizer Buny, as well as terms and phraseslike "best", "revolutionary," "sofphisticated," "gourmet," "you'll love it," "years younger," and a legion of other buzzwords that sound appealing but mean very little.
今日は上の "puffery" を覚えたい。意味は文章中に説明があるので、宣伝文句で使われる誇 張を示していると思えますが、辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: chiefly North American: Exaggerated or false praise.: There has always been a fine line between legitimate puffery and misleading advertising.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: exaggerated commendation especially for promotional purposes: hype: the newspaper's local stories are often thinly disguised puffery for area businesses
普通は宣伝文句を文字通りまともに受け取ることはありませんが、やはり影響はされるのでしょうね 。