Ultimately I think the writer has to determine what he/she is okay with. Can you fall asleep easily at night or does it really bother you?

If your sales copy is full of lies, the majority of people will be able to see through it. Not to mention, you're only damaging the company/brand and products reliability. No opportunities to up sell, once you've sold your faulty batch, you'll need to find buyers elsewhere.

In order to market something properly, the product or service needs to not suck. Online reviewers will expose you or word of mouth will. Depends on what you think is worth it for a quick buck I guess.

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What you write is true, or it ain't... simple as that.

Well, not really.

What if your copy presents ALL the benefits of a product but none of the drawbacks (which most copy does),,, is that lying?

Something to think about.

Alex

If you have to lie to sell the product it may not be worth selling.

Hi theoperator,

Stop reading and listening to scammers and thieves, lying is all they know how to do. Instead look at what the most successful online marketers do.

Amazon is unquestionable the top website for online sales, do you think that the sales copy on Amazon products are mostly lies?

Neither do I.

Amazon is the top dog in this arena for a reason, their sales copy for the most part is accurate, and informative. If anyone has a problem with the products they are given a refund. There is no incentive for hyperbole, and people trust Amazon to delivery exactly what was advertised in their sales copy.

You don't have to lie, nor exaggerate, to sell products. You do need to be clear, specific, and explain the genuine value of your offer. You also need to have a competitive price and a trustworthy website brand image. The latter is not achieved through hyperbolic sales copy.

I guess we are talkin' about the point at which literary massage becomes more about the masseuse than the knotsa sinew seekin' relief.

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Copywriting comes down to story telling.

You have a headline and sub headline.

Features and benefits. Summary paragraph for drawing in further attention.

Bullet points (what you will get/or what you want)

Guarantees - Call to actions - Post scripts

You're never really lying if you are still telling some form of truth.

It happens in this industry, nothing can be done about it and you should be able to gauge how appropriate a product is to your needs by the sales letter alone.

Yes, all marketers do lie.

Cannot remember to ever exaggerate anything. Maybe put some drama inside the story.
For clarity. Or put a slight twist on a so-called 'fact'. There is however always the
undisputed dominance of truth.

Would a story have any appearance of credibility otherwise?

Of course not.

Here a clever case of credibility transfer in the form of blame shifting:

"Nab it here before this offer vanishes like ethics in Washington, D.C..."
another Ben Settle classic

Hi there,

Well, that's something that leaves me questioning..... Am I a liar? Are all marketers liars? Maybe. Perhaps. Yes.

However, I just think that what's important is we make our products great and market it well. In addition, we are not necessarily liars. We seek opinions and experiences from other people, who have personally experience what we try and feel to experience. Thus, WE ARE NOT NECESSARILY LIARS, WE ARE ACTORS AND ACTRESSES.

It's funny but hey, at least we don't destroy other products' reputation, right?

Interestin' debate so far.

TRUTH:

The primary component of Donald Trump's hair is the protein KERATIN.

COPY:

America's Golden Opportunity To Blend Power With Pizzazz.

LIES:

Smoking Donald Trump's hair will transform you into a sex vampire.

I recommend doing what works, rather than what your emotional-reactions tell you to do, or to not do.

There are huge areas of society today, where blatant lies are accepted as facts by nearly everyone, and where obvious truths are denied and ignored.

There are also areas where plain honesty obviously works best, for example, when promoting physical-products on Amazon, a really informative product-report, based on real user-reviews, and product facts, will outperform most hype (and is much easier to create). It is unfortunate that Amazon now won't let you do that, but still, my point is somewhat valid

What will work for an internet-marketing product will be different from what will work for selling a physical-product which has real user-reviews. Hype still certainly works in some areas, but not in others.

Why not just do what works??? . . . most people are really controlled by their emotional-reactions to things, and so just cannot do what actually works. The tools to take control of such areas of your life are too far off-topic for a forum like this, but I'll just say that it's not impossible, with currently available free information.

Chris

Cynics could say -

"The pitch Is always better than the product"

(just ask your beloved one).

So… how about...

The pitch sells boatloads of product and when the good people receive it - lo and behold - they are astonished to discover that the product is even better than the pitch.

Makes getting the second…third…fourth...(etc) sale a lot easier.


Steve

To come back to the original question:

When is copywriting...lying?

The only time i react badly opening a few emails is
when someone insists to steal my time with lines like this:


NEW SOLO AD TO 86 MILLION DOUBLE OPPT IN EMAILS $7.99

How to Make $3859 By TONIGHT!!!

RE: CONTACT 5,500,000 BUYERS EVERY DAY


hey, we all got impressed by wishful thinking at one time
and i suppose these guys never stop because it works
on 14 year olds?

perhaps

Me personally there is no line. That you tell the truth irrespective.

If you want to overhype things just to sell it thats on your conscience. I choose not to have that in my life.

Thats why even with businesses i've been involved with over my life i've never over sold them. Cos i'd rather know i've done the right thing then make money. Thats just me.

If you feel your product is the best solution for this particular person. Then you do what you do to convince them its for them. Cos at times they may not see it straight up.

But if it ISN'T then you either need to get another prospect or a different product plain & simple.

Papa John's Pizza got into a lawsuit with Pizza Hut once for advertising they had better ingredients when in reality all the major pizza chains are using canned ingredients from a factory.

Papa John's eventually won the appeal based on the slogan (better ingredients) being their own opinion and shouldn't be taken as a literal fact.

I love that excerpt published in Reader's Digest some years ago about the way the famous copywriter John Caples used to start up his opening sales letter. He listed five points:

1. They are telegraphic

2. They are fact packed

3. Are specific

4. Uses fewer adjectives

5. Arouses attention.

Cheers-James

What do you think? Well... tell the truth. The Brutal truth.

Nobody can take The Brutal truth.

We all have a selective perception of reality.

You don't? Tell us more.

If a writer must resort to 'creativity' when stating the claims of a product or service, the ad is probably not going to test all that well.

I believe the creativity and power of a product/service lies in the market one is trying to sell to and/or in the product itself, not in the writer/marketer.

In my humble opinion, copywriting is never lying. It is presenting the facts from a unique viewpoint...which the vast majority may or may not share.

For instance, I can honestly say that sausage and mushroom pizza is better than any other combination on the planet. To me, that's a full truth while you may disagree 100%. That doesn't make me a liar though, because I'm representing my personal opinion.

Now, let's get back to copywriting.

You are hired to represent the client's unique viewpoint, and chances are pretty darn good that you're not going to wholeheartedly agree with it. For instance, does GEICO really save everyone 15% or more on car insurance? Nope; they were about 20% higher than USAA for me. That's why the commercial says, "15 minutes COULD save you 15% or more..." There's no promise there at all, even though the vast majority perceive it that way.

So this is really a topic about perception.

Now, if you're one of those sleazy marketers claiming that you're $97 eBook will naturally cure cancer, then yes...you're a liar. Because not even the author believes that. But for everyone else that's representing an actual viewpoint that's based on some facet of perception, it is not a lie...even if it seems that way to you personally.

Animals use all kinds of tricks to survive (keep from being eaten) and or catch pray.
Big brother uses every trick they can think of to steal your money
Big corp use every trick they can think of to get you to buy things and become some kind of debt slave

So everyone and anyone out there you can possibly look at is using some method or strategy to survive, but yet as copywriters we're not suppose to push the envelope. And doing so will cause the end of all humanity as we know it. Like there's such a huge disconnect. I mean what, we're not allowed to eat? Like come on. Nobody's gonna buy something that isn't looking as if it's the best invention since sliced bread. That it's gonna utterly change their whole life and entire future once they buy it. Like who's gonna buy something that's just sounding average. And I'm not saying lie. Not at all. But I'm saying it tends to feel like we get treated extremely unfairly for trying to eat. Like if that if that's the case I'll just starve to death and get it the frack over with! No, I just think we're not outside our boundries to try and put our best foot forward as long as it's within reason. I mean we gotta eat too right.

But here's the thing, by default as an internet marketer, under the description in the National Career Types Directory you'll read "con artist". That's what you're branded as. You're a schemer or con artist...why? Only because you've broken free from the nazi control grid and figured out a way to make money on auto pilot, even off gird. tptb hate anyone who can break from from the slave catagory. That's my take.

There's a thing called perception. If something is perceived to be an amazing deal and fair by a prospect then they will swear blind there is nothing wrong but...

A professional writer will look at the same copy and see it for what it might be. Just a way to get you to buy the service/product.

At the end of the day, we are all salesmen in one degree or another, where we are selling our self as a respectable freelancer on Upwork, an awesome boyfriend/girlfriend who will provide for you or weather we are going to a job interview.

Enjoy.

I think playing for truth is the way to go. It is okay to oversell, if the product or service is really good. However, if it isn't as good as I think it is, then I just lay down all its features and try to make it sound good. It's still true and no other features were added except the ones that are actually in it. Then let your readers decide...

I don't consider copywriting as lying it is more about branding. Our jobs as marketers is not to lie but help differentiate and call attention to our product through creativity, entertainment, or providing more knowledge about the solution. Consumers are more cynical about hyped copywriting.

When is copywriting...lying? I think when you are selling products and services it is illegal to lie. "Federal Trade Commission enforces these truth-in-advertising laws, and it applies the same standards no matter where an ad appears – in newspapers and magazines, ONLINE." Under the law, deception by implication is illegal, too.

Ads that look like news article needs to be labeled as sponsored content/advertorial. Even network marketers who often share the 'highlights' of their business opportunities such as being able to pay off credit card debts, student loans, are required to add even on their online posts that "this opportunity does not guarantee any income or level of success, and income depends on the person's own efforts, diligence, and skill.

I think most of the copywriting lying stuff is done in the political arena. There is no one shutting down sites that write about exaggerations and lies. Misleading people with hyped up news seems to be legal when it's political.
So be a political campaign copywriter when you don't have problems with lying.