In the first chapter of the book "unSpun", written by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the authors really try to drive home the point that the American public is deceived by advertisements and political campaigns The authors tell a story about a man in the late 1800's who was selling fake snake oil to people, claiming that it would rid them of any pain or lameness. They then go on to tell a story of a product in 2006 that claimed to be made out of emu oil and that would make wrinkles disappear. Surprisingly enough, the product did not work. " That's where a century of progress in product promotion has gotten us: from baseline claims for snake oil to baseline claims for emu oil."(Pg5) The authors make many more points to make the reader believe that they are getting ripped of because of lies that are told not only in advertising, but also by politicians who are running campaigns have a different view on the hole thing. The American public is only getting ripped off because they are so unhappy with themselves that they will believe almost anything in order to get a quick fix to their problems.

According to the author’s Americans spend billions a year on unproven, fraudulently marketed, often useless health related products and devises. They used many well-known names for their examples, such as: Bayer HealthCare, Munchkin Inc., NetZero, and Tropicana. All four had been found to be marketing false information to make their product look better than the competitors. Not only are advertisers giving false information, but so are politicians. The authors remind us of many different times when politicians have stretched the truth, lied, and flat out deceive the American public.”It comes as no surprise that candidates want to avoid discussing politically painful solutions during an election year, or ever. But there’s real harm I pretending that there are easy solutions to big problems, or that the problems don’t exist.” (Pg8) Whether it is commercially or politically, my personal view is that nothing in life is handed to you on a silver platter.

The purpose of all this deception is nothing more than pure greed and profit. Besides wasted money, commercial deception can be so misleading it can cause bad health, and in extreme cases even death. During elections, politicians deceive the public in much the same way. Simply put they promise things that don't happen in order to favor themselves. They create a false illusion of reality. “ For example, one of the most deceptive adds of the 2004 campaign was a Bush commercial showing a pack of wolves, symbolizing the terrorists about to attack.” (Pg14)

The problem today isn't the corrupt advertising or politics, it's people wanting to take the easy way out. That’s why politicians will stop at nothing too win an election. Of course their going to promise whatever they think America wants to hear. Of course their going to make themselves look like a saint and their competitors look like slum. They want to win, and us as an American public want the easy way out. We'll vote for whoever promises us the road to riches and the Garden of Eden. It's sad, but it's true. Unfortunately Jackson and Jamieson were right when they stated that product promotion hasn't changed much over the last century, but neither has our society. Instead of progressing towards more healthy alternitaves in our life styles, we have ever so much progressed towards the qiuck fix. In doing that we have also made our selves more saseptible to believing in the quick fix. Instead of blaming others, such as advertising, we should blame ourselves for believing in something that is unreachable.