Lip service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Lip service (disambiguation).
Lip service is an idiom used to describe the situation in which someone complies with a certain obligation, or expectation, to the minimum possible extent. People paying lip service usually do so because they have no intention to comply any more than they are forced to, if at all.
For example, Scientologists use a device which they describe as being able to read stress, but advertising regulations in English law require that they state that the device has no scientific merit whatsoever, since their claims have not been proven to the satisfaction of the Advertising Standards Authority. Consequently, they pay lip service to the requirement by indicating the lack of scientific merit in small print, but nevertheless advertise the device as useful, and heavily advertise offers of free stress-tests with it.
Lip - Service is also a rock clothing line similar to the things sold at Hot Topic.