Needs Help: Asbestos Free Cereal

I'm reading through this, and I'm noticing that some of the examples just don't seem to fit the trope as described very well. I've seen a few that would fit just as well on Made in Country X, Lite Crème, Here Comes the Science or Crunchtastic, and there's also quite a bit of natter as well.

What I'm seeing is that the trope itself is really, really vague. I figure it's supposed to be an advertising-specific subtrope of Suspiciously Specific Denial or Overly Narrow Superlative, but some of the examples are really Exactly What It Says on the Tin Done Badly. Any comments?

Also, now that I think about it, we may have a Missing Supertrope for dubious advertising claims.

edited 11th Apr '12 9:17:11 AM by lee4hmz

I think this is supposed to be when companies advertise their products for something that is true but also completely irrelevant. Such as putting a big label "FAT FREE" on a pack of sugar. And yes, that is a trope.

Right, and that's where the other tropes I mentioned come in; it seems like the examples aren't doing a good job of explaining why the claim is irrelevant, just that it sounds odd. At least one example (the American cheese one) is blatant Complaining and will be removed when I get around to it.

And the name itself implies that cereal normally has it.

Yes, that's a frequent implementation of the trope. This is about advertising claims that are 100% true and also completely irrelevant. Advertising that your X does not contain Y, when Xs never contain Y, is a perfect example.

Checking Weasel Words, it's just about advertisement tropes, so that would be your Super-Trope.

I read through the examples. Many are generic, with no specific brand using that argument, but they're still according to the trope.

I really love the non-gene-manipulated salt one. To actually manage to do that would be more likely to bring a Nobel Prize.

edited 11th Apr '12 10:08:49 AM by Feather7603

"Yes, that's a frequent implementation of the trope. This is about advertising claims that are 100% true and also completely irrelevant."

What I mean is that it would look like In-Universe that cereal actually does have asbestos. Heck, with the "pink slime" issue in Real Life, that kind of claim looks even more like it could be genuine.

"Checking Weasel Words, it's just about advertisement tropes, so that would be your Super Trope."

And that term applies to many things other than advertising, like tabloid news or political discussions. So people wouldn't realize that it's about advertising specifically.

For the record, the trope used to be called "Made From 100% Pure Grade A Crap", until we renamed it in this thread (I'm the one who thought of the current name, by the way). It probably didn't help any misuse.

For the record, I like this article and I love the name.

And I'm also not seeing the misuse.

edited 11th Apr '12 5:50:28 PM by Martello

FWIW I was against the current name, but I did give it the redirect of Mundane Marketing Claim.

Mixed in with the examples of this is what I think is another trope: mundane ingredients/components/whatever being given flashy trademarked names like "Corinthian leather."

It's similar, but does sounds like it could definitely be another trope.

Looks to me like Asbestos-Free Cereal is the supertrope, with Made in Country X and Crunchtastic (and probably the others, and possibly Get the Sensation) as subtropes.

I think that's Crunchtastic.

edited 16th Apr '12 8:53:05 AM by HersheleOstropoler

Hershele pretty much nailed it, I think. Also, upon reading Crunchtastic again, it has a very narrow focus, that on sniglets or nonsense words as often used to sell stuff to kids. It's missing a Sibling Trope, that of the case where the word or phrase isn't nonsense, but isn't exactly someone outside of an ad would say.

edited 16th Apr '12 5:15:11 PM by lee4hmz

Bump. Anything to do here? I don't see any problems.

Seems done. Locking up.