I hate this phrase. It is a rhetorical nightmare. It appears on cereal boxes, advertisements, and many other places. The reason I hate it is that every word in the phrase "may help reduce the risk" diminishes the impact of the argument. If you analyze it word by word, it essentially means nothing:
May: or may not. I'm assuming the word "may" means that you have about a 50% chance that something will happen.
Help: well, this one means that it's not the only contributing factor. If there are just three other factors of equal importance, this one only carries 25% of the weight.
Reduce: this just says that it won't totally eliminate what you don't want, it will just "reduce" it. I'm guessing a good reduction would be something like 30%? Sure.
the risk: Take the risk of heart disease, for example. Various sources on the internet say it affects one in three people, so you already have a 66% chance that nothing will happen to you anyways.
Okay, I'm pretty bad at math, but if you multiply these percentage guestimations, it gives you a 1.24% chance that eating cherrios or wheat thins or what have you will directly affect your heart disease. But of course, the box says to combine it with a healthy diet and excersise anyways. Like I said, this phrase means nothing. It's simply the new catch phrase of the food industry designed to make dumb consumers think their mediocre product is actually healthy. That's why I hate it.
7 comments:
Bravo. Actually, it's a legal phrase to keep them from blatantly lying about their product, which is against the law.
wow - you have a lot more time on your hands than i thought you would these days.
Precision in communication is extremely important. Very good analysis!!!
The phrase is probably a joint effort between marketing people, who make things sound like they mean something when they really don't, and lawyers, who do everything possible to avoid risk.
actual news headline.... "They say that this "movement therapy" can actually help you lose weight."
hmmmm movement therapy hmmm?
Haha you mean excercise? What a new concept!
don't you have a wedding to plan?
sure, at least I think I do.
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