An Examination of that Form of Deception Called Puffery
Puffery is a marketing term which pertains to the “message" part of the promotional mix. The term itself has become the subject of discussion for two reasons: 
 
1) 
 
From a legal standpoint, puffery is legitimate and is, in fact, a permissable form of communication. 
 
 
 
 
2) 
 
Puffery and truth substantiated by fact are recognized as two different types of information.
An Interpretation of the Attitudinal and Behavioral Effects of Puffery
Although the FTC has increased its activity in the monitoring of deceptive advertising, the law nonetheless continues to recognize most puffery as harmless and permits a firm to argue that a claim is puffery in defense against a charge of fraud or misrepresentation. This paper is designed to explore the view that puffery may be equivalent in impact to literal deception. A review of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature in the areas of expectation creation, attitude formation, and disconfirmation is presented which suggests that puffery achieves its intended impact through a combination of preexposure and postpurchase effects. Specifically, it is argued that puffed claims create high expectations used in attitude and intention formation prior to purchase. The nature of these claims is such that many cannot be disconfirmed after purchase while others are repressed due to the consumer's reluctance to acknowledge discrepancy. Moreover, the initial inflated attitude serves to bolster the postpurchase attitude when the consumer is exposed to and recognizes a negative disconfirmation. Implications of this interpretation for the marketing and legal communities are discussed.
Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture
PART 1: Basic Concepts Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Economists' View of Behavior Chapter 3: Markets, Organizations, and the Role of Knowledge PART 2: Managerial Economics Chapter 4: Demand Chapter 5: Production and Cost Chapter 6: Market Structure Chapter 7: Pricing with Market Power Chapter 8: Economics of Strategy: Creating and Capturing Value Chapter 9: Economics of Strategy: Game Theory Chapter 10: Incentive Conflicts and Contracts PART 3: Designing Organizational Architecture Chapter 11: Organizational Architecture Chapter 12: Decision Rights: The Level of Empowerment Chapter 13: Decision Rights: Bundling Tasks into Jobs and Subunits Chapter 14: Attracting and Retaining Qualified Employees Chapter 15: Incentive Compensation Chapter 16: Individual Performance Evaluation Chapter 17: Divisional Performance Evaluation Capstone Case Study on Organizational Architecture: Arthur Andersen LLP PART 4: Applications of Organizational Architecture Chapter 18: Corporate Governance Chapter 19: Vertical Integration and Outsourcing Chapter 20: Leadership: Motivating Change within Organizations Chapter 21: Understanding the Business Environment: The Economics of Regulation Chapter 22: Ethics and Organizational Architecture Chapter 23: Organizational Architecture and the Process of Management Innovation Glossary Index