The Puffery of Lawyers

Lawyers advertise to attract clients. Politicians advertise to attract voters. Businesses advertise to attract customers. All of these advertisers advertise with a common subtext: choose me, because I'm better than the rest.

Hire me, vote for me, buy my product, and good things will happen. The message may be blunt, explicit, direct, linear. But often it is not. The bludgeon is not the tool of choice in modem mass advertising.

The message, more commonly, is presented with subtlety, often merely suggested, often presented with indirection, irony, camp, or comedy. Information as such is not the point. The stuff of modern advertising is not information, but imagery. Advertisers sell imagery.

The honest politician, compassionate for the common man and tough as nails on crime. The enterprising business, primed for the technologies of the new millennium, creative, responsive, ready and able to serve the customer's needs. And the lawyer, tough and aggressive, able to stand up to insurance companies and fight for the rights of the injured and wronged.