A problem with overstating can be that people will react to the limitation of the real thing as evidence that they were mislead.
Actually, even something not intended as hype can have negative effects. Lots of people remember the phrase "too cheap to meter" but comparatively few know the context in which it was said.
"It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter; will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history; will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age. This is the forecast of an age of peace."
Lewis L. Strauss [New York Times, August 7, 1955]
Now obviously he's not talking of some short term developments there [1] but speaking in a now-outdated way about the possibilities of the future.
1: Well, "our children" does limit the time frame but if we suppose that he's talking about the kids born in the 1950s, we still have a good thirty years to make good on the predictions that have not materialized.
no subject
Actually, even something not intended as hype can have negative effects. Lots of people remember the phrase "too cheap to meter" but comparatively few know the context in which it was said.
"It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter; will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history; will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age. This is the forecast of an age of peace."
Lewis L. Strauss [New York Times, August 7, 1955]
Now obviously he's not talking of some short term developments there [1] but speaking in a now-outdated way about the possibilities of the future.
1: Well, "our children" does limit the time frame but if we suppose that he's talking about the kids born in the 1950s, we still have a good thirty years to make good on the predictions that have not materialized.