Curtain Promises: Draped in Puffery?
Ryan had just moved from Southern California to Kansas and was settling in for his first real winter. The Southern California lifestyle rarely required significant adaptations to changes in weather throughout the year, so Ryan was surprised to find that the turning of seasons was accompanied by a significant increase to his utility bill. As the temperatures fell and his energy usage (and its accompanying payment) began to rise, Ryan sought advice to help stymie the winter assault on his wallet. The simplest recommendation? Insulating curtains. But while the manufacturers made a lot of promises about their effectiveness, Ryan wanted to make sure that he was getting his money’s worth. Did the curtains rise to the task, or was it all just a load of puffery?
1. Discuss and apply the difference between puffery and deceptive claims in marketing
2. Evaluate marketing messages for potentially deceptive content
3. Create a testable data-driven hypothesis
4. Interpret graphical visualizations of data
5. Identify which components of regression analysis output are necessary for answering a research question
6. Interpret relevant regression analysis results
7. Evaluate whether or not deceptive advertising has occurred