Many people are tuned to not believing what the advertisements are showing since it's by nature advertisement are suppose to be exaggerated and only shows the best side of a product/service.
I myself particular do not like such "norm" in today's marketing industry.
McDonald's advertisements are really attractive especially with the size and the substantial ingredients of the burgers it has portrayed. It's weird that people rarely complain about this and is it really taken as the hidden "rule" for advertising?
Many might consider such practice as a type of puffery but i will take it as some kind of deception to the consumers.
It is pretty lame to make a distinction between puffery and deception. Both are not conveying the "truth" of the products to the consumers. In other words, such practices are just artifices to get higher sales. Both are not ethical even though the former is legal but the latter isn't.
This is really a type of vicious cycle that since one is likely to do better with puffery and its rivals are like to follow suit and it inevitable leads to a "fad" of exaggerated advertising.
However some brands have taken such norm as a opportunity for another type of advertising which shows considerable "modesty and sincerity" in advertising. They focus on the facts and inform consumers about how others might have exaggerated and even caution the consumers when come to such puffery.
