You see these kinds of claims all the time: "If you can find a lower price than ours, it's yours free." Now, how many freebies do you think they've given out? If no one believes it, then why do we keep saying it?

Or maybe your claim is just vaccuous: "Quality since 1923." (Before 1923, it was utter crap.)

Or your claim is boring: "Your local hardware store." Um, I kinda knew where you were located, thanks.

All this was brought to mind as I watch the steel-cage match being waged by companies that want my cable TV, Internet, and land-line phone business. They both offer a "triple play" package that seems about the same price to me. They each seem to like to instill fear about the other by talking about "phone company TV" or "cable company phone service" as though their competitor has a corner on bad will. (Face it, you two, no one likes either one of you.)

They argue a lot about who has the best package for HDTV, but I don't really understand how they count how many channels there are, so that goes over my head. (I wouldn't even know how many channels I get now, HD or not.) I similarly can't figure out what the difference is in the phone service from each.

But my favorite is the speed comparisons for the Internet service. This one I actually can understand. They each seem to delight in comparing how much faster their fastest service is compared to the competitor's slower service. Which just confuses all those folks out there into sticking with dial-up. (I had to personally walk my in-laws through the decision making process so they could pick one.)

I wonder why they can't just say, "Hey, ours is slightly slower than the competitor's [or about the same or slightly faster] but that isn't what you care about. Our price is about the same, too, so don't look at that either. What you really care about is..."

Now, I am guessing that I know. It's because they don't have much to say. Now, I know that cable companies usually don't have a contract to sign (so no early termination fees) and that phone companies often throw in installation or equipment for free (one was giving away HDTVs around here recently), so why aren't they talking about those things exclusively? Maybe I am naive (OK, OK, I know I am naive), but I think that there's just too much out there designed to fool customers. And it backfires.

Some people (like me) see through at least some of it, and we then doubt everything else that is said that we don't understand. Others (like my in-laws) glaze over and remain frozen in time, choosing neither option. Now, I am sure that some people really are fooled and go along for the ride in one car or the other—the companies wouldn't advertise this way if it never worked—but I think the long term damage they are causing themselves is really sad.

Right now, they look at things as though there are only two players, but that will change. What would happen if a cell phone company bought a satellite TV provider (or vice versa)? What will happen as cellular broadband or Wi-Max spreads? And if none of these things happen, something else will.

Sure the phone companies and cable companies can adapt to the new technology, but they should expect more competitors, not fewer. And when the competitors come in, don't be surprised if they aim for more authentic claims as a differentiator.

I know the old joke that says that if you can fake authenticity, then you have it made. So I don't expect human nature to change. But as customers get smarter and smarter, your advertising claims need to keep up. P.T. Barnum said that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, but I personally think people will go broke doing that soon.