The problem with puffery

Muhammad Ali was his own hype man, a poet of puff.

And it worked. For a few reasons:

For a long time, it was true. He was the greatest.

It was fun to watch, part of the deal.

And, when it ended, and it usually does, the audience was okay with that.

Lazy marketers and their copywriters are often tempted to go down the same road. To claim something they don’t have, to do it in advance. The problem is the question it creates in those you seek to change: if you’ll lie about that, what else will you lie about?