Proof

"The Best Just Got Better"
-New Coke slogan

Its elegance,
its engines,
its exciting new features,
make other cars
seem ordinary
— Edsel advertisement, 1957

Now you can be as loud as you want with New Doritos Wow! Tortilla Crisps.  They've got all the super loud, break-out-from-the-crowd taste of Doritos.  And because they're made with OLEAN, they've got only 1 gram of fat at 1/3 fewer calories.  So even with less fat, it's still…the loudest taste on earth.  Wow!

"Everybody Needs A Yugo Sometime."

It was "like Pulp Fiction for the year 3000" and "like Star Wars, only better"
- John Travolta, promoting Battlefield Earth

Do you believe any of those?

You could certainly hear or read those words enough, back in the day.  So the message was there, but who was receptive?

I'll put it another way.  Why would anyone believe anyone's unsupported word on anything, especially when it's self-serving?  The above are just examples, though they're infamous ones.  New Coke was massively perceived as worse, Edsel is still a byword for failure, Wow! chips caused "anal leakage" (Wow! indeed), nobody needed a Yugo ever, and Battlefield Earth is on many "worst ever" lists.

And yet so many advertisers, politicians, and influencers expect you to take their word for things.

Since you can find anything on the internet, you can find plenty of claims that won't hold water.  The earth is flat, we never went to the moon, vaccines are dangerous…the list goes on and on.  And just as nonsensical as the ad slogans I started this with.  Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.  Your product is best?  Talk is cheap.  Let's see some proof.

I'll talk more about it soon(-ish), but just keep this in mind for now: If someone suffers no penalty for inaccuracy, maybe don't trust their words.  Furthermore, if they benefit from inaccuracy, maybe don't even listen.

There are reputable sources out there.  But the self-serving, self-promoting, and even self-centered ones, not so much.