Puffery

1881 Italian ad for *Cannabis indica* cigarillos, promising to "stop the most violent attacks of asthma, nervous cough, colds, extinction of voice, facial neuralgia and insomnia, and to combat all laryngeal and respiratory ailments."

In colloquial language, puffery refers to exaggerated or false praise.^[1] Puffery serves to "puff up" what is being described. In law, puffery is usually invoked as a defense argument: it identifies futile speech, typically of a seller, which does not give rise to legal liability. In a circular manner, legal explanations for this normative position describe the non-enforceable speech as a statement that no "reasonable person" would take seriously anyway.^[2]^[3]

^ puffery^{[dead link]} in Oxford Dictionaries
^ Newcal Industries, Inc. v. IKON Office Solutions, 513 F.3d 1038, 1053 (9th Cir. 2008).
^ William Reynell Anson, Principles of the English Law of Contract (7th ed., OUP, Oxford 1893)

[1] uffery^{[dead link]} in Oxford Dictionaries

[2] Newcal Industries, Inc. v. IKON Office Solutions, 513 F.3d 1038, 1053 (9th Cir. 2008).

[3] William Reynell Anson, Principles of the English Law of Contract (7th ed., OUP, Oxford 1893)

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