They often say read the fine prints when it comes to a deal as many times what is advertised in big bold letters isn’t what you expect. That got me thinking about this today where on the site Shoppers Drug Mart there was a banner indicating that if you login to their site you would get 50,000 points which is basically $50. That doesn’t sound right as companies wouldn’t just give people free money like that. There is an Asterix on the word “points” though.
Sure enough, when you login it then changes to say you can get 50,000 points if you spend $150. That isa more common promotion that they have. While having the Asterix definitely is supposed to say read more as an example about the deal, I actually wonder how many times companies were still held liable for what can be considered as misleading advertising. I believe there was a situation before where the company that makes TurboTax was sued for them advertising free tax returns where a lot of people actually didn’t qualify.
Those examples would say you should make it more apparent on what the deal is all about. But I so wonder why in this case why they wouldn’t just say it was a spend $150 deal considering it’s members that would be able to take advantage of it. Then again, maybe it’s to entice people to sign up to which I would wonder if it would turn into like that TurboTax situation. But then again, technically you wouldn’t have lost any money. But is risking being sneaky in this way marketing wise worth it in the end?