Overadvertise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To promote a product or service excessively, leading to potential consumer fatigue or skepticism
2. To engage in the act of promoting something so frequently that it diminishes its perceived value
3. To create an overwhelming amount of marketing messages that can overwhelm or annoy the target audience

Etymology: "Overadvertise" is simply the prefix "over-", meaning excessively or too much, attached to "advertise." The prefix over- has been productive in English since Old English, where it appeared in words like "oferhigian" (to despise), and it is still used freely to form verbs that describe doing something to excess, such as overcook or overwork. "Advertise" itself came into English in the late Middle Ages from Old French "advertir," which descended from Latin "advertere," meaning to turn one's attention toward something. Its earliest English sense was closer to notifying or informing someone than to selling. The commercial sense of drawing public attention to a product developed much later, so the verb has travelled a long way from simply turning someone's mind toward a fact.

Synonyms: oversell