Is hypey advertising dishonest?

Not sure if i would call it dishonest, but i always feel the advertiser should use the product or atleast understand it. Otherwise it's all just great marketing, e.g- every morning tv show ad with some ab thing or swivel sweeper etc etc.. hype at it's finest.

No, as long as it's honest!

I believe 'hypey' always outsells 'un-hypey' in niche markets where you are an un-known expert, and you are making a single sale. Of course having said that you should always stay honest.

You know: Talk about benefits, not features; lifestyle, not risk; weight lost not food missed. This isn't dishonest hype , just good marketing.

Otherwise to build a reputation, under-promising and over-delivery is a slow but very solid strategy not many people use.

The late Gary Halbert in one of his seminars said that you can hype up your copy but you should not be dishonest.

So it means there is a big difference. With the first you are just putting your product under the best possible light, with the other it's lying/deception.

IMO, too hypey will definitely lead to dishonesty. The line is very thin....




Qamar

Only if the claims are false. There is nothing wrong about building hype around an advertising campaign, in fact its a prerequisite for a successful campaign.

I find hyped up copy a complete turn-off. But like most things some of it will be dishonest, and some of it not.
In most cases I'll immediately delete an email that has a hyped up title, and browse away from a web page that appears to have a hyped up header.
Mind you. It all depends on how each of us defines hyped up I guess.

Hey Debbie D... man that's got a ring to it

In my opinion... we as marketers, salesmen, advertisers... we have a role to play in the prospect's buying decision.

(Wow, look at how businessy that sounds :p)

It is our job to remove any excuse a prospect (who wants the product) has to NOT buy it, and every motivation to purchase that product NOW.

Hype is important... motivated language such as life-changing, ground-breaking, dominate, underground, secrets.... they are all hype-y words, in the sense that they're exaggerated.

Not using these kinds of words is bad copy.

e.g. "This ground-breaking underground formula will imbed into your subconscious ALL the secrets the Top 1% use to dominate today's economy"

or

"This program will teach you how to make money"

You see?

And equally, you don't want to sound like an idiotic 19 year old girl straight from Reality TV:

"OH MY GOD THIS THING IS JUST AWESOME... TOTALLY AWESOME, IT'S LIKE... THE BEST THING EVUUUURRRRRRRRR.... XOXOXOXOX >_< :-D :-D"

You know?

In any case, you know when you're telling a lie. You know when you're bending the truth just a little too much. As soon as you have to ask yourself 'am I just being full of **** here' then it's time to rethink your text.

Otherwise you're just doing your job... helping motivated buyers get over that initial hump of parting with their cash, taking a risk that'll improve their lives.

Of course if you don't believe the product will help them, you have no business selling it in my opinion.

Remember, be honest, don't tell lies, but be a marketer

Not too long ago I mentored with David Garfinkel. He's not only one of the top 3 living copywriters IMO... but known as the world's greatest copy coach.

I asked him this very question. His response: If you can prove it... it's not hype. I've never forgotten it and in fact it's what I pass on to my students.