Everyone taken in by half of hoofer's sensational advertising (8)
I believe the answer is:
ballyhoo
'sensational advertising' is the definition.
(ballyhoo is sensational publicity)
'everyone taken in by half of hoofer's' is the wordplay.
'everyone' becomes 'all' (all people).
'taken in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'half of' means to take half the letters.
'all' going into 'by' is 'bally'.
'hoofer' halved is 'hoo'.
'bally'+'hoo'='BALLYHOO'
(Other definitions for ballyhoo that I've seen before include "Much fuss" , "fuss about nothing?" , "Hubbub" , "Exaggerated fuss" , "Great fuss" .)