As a marketer-cum-copywriter with a strong sense of “consumer advocacy” — it really irks me when other copywriters and marketers “stretch the truth” about what they’re trying to sell.

Claims need PROOF. And they also need a dose of truth!

To protect the innocent, I’m not going to name specific culprits in this example.

I listed to an MP3 audio “special report” just yesterday, flogging a new product to do with online marketing. Specifically, eBay.

Part of the interview highlighted that the product author, until several months ago, didn’t really understand the internet, or internet marketing. Sure, it mentioned this person had had a successful business career as an entrepreneur, and as a marketer, but not online. They’d even been to, and presented at, seminars — but not really about this.

So why then, after just 5 minutes of public research, did I find out the product’s author is an eBay accredited “Education Specialist” who has been teaching people about internet marketing for 2 years?

Clearly a case of message incongruency.

I’m sure the strategy in the interview was to create empathy with possible purchasers, along the lines of “I was just like you, I didn’t really understand the internet until this magic pill — my product — came along.”

In turn, that means to imply something along the lines of … “you too can achieve great results because you are just like I used to be.”

Interesting too that the figures being mentioned dealth with “they made $xxxxxx” rather than the amount of PROFIT. Turnover isn’t profit! There were also a couple of other claims which are not specifcally true, although a little more explaining would have been proof enough to warrant making the claim.

In all honesty, I can’t rate the actual product that was for sale — because I don’t own it. But I don’t intend to own it, especially now!

The funny thing is, as a copywriter, I don’t know why this eBay background wasn’t turned into an advantage, rather than being hidden. There are plenty of ways I could use this info to prevent the 20 percent of the population who have my type of personality (that can be quite rebellious, and need logic, proof and details!) from being turned off a sale.