No word is more powerful (or misused) in marketing than “free.” So when NutriSystem advertised its new advanced diet program with three weeks of free food, our trusty mouse had to check it out.
What is better than free? “Absolutely free.” But the dagger leads to some fine print.
*MOUSE PRINT:
“…for this offer you must stay on Auto-Delivery for at least three consecutive 28-day program deliveries… One additional free week of food will be included with your first, second, and third deliveries.”
In other words, you have to buy three months of NutriSystem food in order to receive three additional weeks of “free” food. How much money are you going to have to lay out to get the “absolutely free” food?
*MOUSE PRINT: According to their website, 28-days of food on the auto-delivery plan costs $319.95 for men. Multiply that by three for the required monthly shipments, and the total cost is $959.85.
So, in order to receive three weeks of food “absolutely free”, you have to spend nearly $1000. I am losing my appetite already.
They are actually giving you 3 weeks of food free. If you are going to diet it will probably take more than 3 months to lose so it is nice to get some of those weeks free. Although I do not spend anywhere near $319.95 a month on food so this is not something I would even think to try out even with some extra weeks thrown in free.
This is not ‘free’. It comes with an obligation, hence it is not free. I wish all those ‘liberal judges legislating from the bench’ would stop altering my (and your) language, and force advertisers to use the correct wording. You are getting a discount here. And a good one. About 25%. But you’re not getting anything free.
Jasper, is the free bobble-head you get for being among the first at a baseball game really free? You do have an obligation to show up at the stadium, after all? (You don’t have an obligation to buy a ticket. They don’t care where you got the ticket. Maybe you won it from a radio station.)
Is “buy one, get one free” really free since you have to buy one?
Would you feel better if this deal were advertised as “buy 12 weeks, get three free (limit 12)”?
Calling it a discount suggests that you’d get that percent off whatever amount you buy, which isn’t the case. In this deal, you get the same amount of food (three weeks’ worth) no matter how much food you order, as long as you order at least 12 weeks’ worth. This deal does not entitle you to six weeks of food when you order 24 weeks, for instance.
If you order the minimum, then it is a 20% discount (not 25%). But the longer you stay with the program, the lower the “discount” turns out to be since you’ll be paying full price for everything afterward.
This seems like a wholly uninteresting piece of mouse print. Unless the price of the food happened to go up by 25% just before the deal was announced, nullifying the 20% discount, the price is unrelated to the details of this deal. The price is $9.15 per day for the first 15 weeks, after which is rises to $11.43.
Edgar replies: If NutriSystem was straight forward in their original ad and said “Buy 3 months of food, Get 3 weeks free”, this wouldn’t be a Mouse Print* story. They, like so many other advertisers only highlight the “free” part in their headline, and leave to the fine print, “oh by the way you have to buy X.” That’s the issue.
As typical the ‘FREE’ diet food is designed to make your wallet thinner.
Jasper’s comment about liberal judges is the tip off that this is not a man who thinks for himself. If anything ‘liberal’ judges would be more inclined to rule against the promotion than for it.
Rob Kennedy’s comment reads more like Nutri-System PR than a legitimate response to the MousePrint article. Sure, it is likely to take more than three months on the Nutri-System food program to lose the weight you want. Mr. Kennedy makes the assumption that the buyer will continue with the program and offers calculations as to why this MousePrint article is worthy of the posting (without an increase in the cost of the daily cost of the program. Good try at misdirection Mr. Kennedy.
I’d challenge Mr. Kennedy to provide us with the real facts of the Nutri-System program; like the percentage of weight regained (plus some)by its members. Also, what percentage of people who use the program maintain the weight loss for at least a year. Gosh, Nutri-System’s own spokespeople have trouble with keeping lost weight off.
Edgar replies: I don’t want to stiffle fair and polite comment, but unlike a threaded message board, blog comments are really supposed to relate to the issues raised in the original post, rather than to what others have said in the comment section. (Unfortunately, when one challenges another commenter’s assertions, too often the conversation devolves into name calling. Let’s hope that is not the direction of this thread.)
Rob,
You said “(You don’t have an obligation to buy a ticket. They don’t care where you got the ticket. Maybe you won it from a radio station.)”
In all actuality, most of the promotions at sporting events are “The first x fans with a paid ticket.” Promo tickets (won from the radio, given to companies, etc) are not eligible.
I found this out when I went to a Cardinals game last year. I received a ticket from my job and was unable to get the free mini-bats they were handing out.
That’s probably less than I’d spend on groceries and eating out in a three month period. I say it sounds like a good deal.
My wife were on Nutrisystem for a while then actually added up the costs. Yikes.
Even with the “free” food, their prices are insane (IMHO.) Over three 28 day periods, we will have spent a bit over $1400. But that is for 3-1/2 adults (don’t ask) instead of 1 adult and includes things like milk and fresh fruits were not included with the “diet” but recommended as part of it by Nutrisystem themselves. It also includes all our cleaning supplies and paper goods (toilet paper, paper towel, diapers, etc.)
I’m not sure how food prices are in the U.S. these days, but here in Holland I spend about 280 euro’s a month on food. So this doesn’t sound ridiculously expensive.
Also Edgar, you did leave out an important bit when you “magnified” the mouse print. It says you need to do 3 periods of 28 days to get your 2nd and 3rd week of free food. This suggests to me that you get one week of free food if you only use their stuff for one month?
The “FREE” reference is bad enough, but I totally take exception to them using the word “absolute”, which should mean that there are no catches, like ordering a free magazine to see if it is something you want to subscribe to. It should mean “come pick it up–you do not even need to leave your name.”
Nutri-System sucks. The food is okay, but their customer service is horrible. I did it for two months. You have the choice of letting them decide what to send you, or you get to pick. If you pick, many times the stuff you want is unavailable and they send you whatever they decide in place of what you really want. Not much of a “choice”.
Stay away from NS and don’t buy in to the slick commercials.
I had the same happen to me on Nutri-System they never had the things I wanted. I also can’t do exercise and now they suggest exercise. Also allergic to soy and peanuts. Not the diet for me.
……..we fell for the scam too. We ordered Nutri-System and were “word for word” promised a year of the lock in price. Not. Our second order was raised over 60.00 We called a “rep”..waited on the line thirty min….spoke with someone who knew nothing and were charged to quit the program. It is a complete and utter joke. They will fall again, I am sure.
No matter how you choose to spin and interpret the 3-weeks-free offer, Nutrisytem ROCKS! I’ve lost 55 pounds in 7 months on Nutrisystem. I pay $277 per month (plus other grocery items that you need to add in) and it’s worth every penny. How can you expect to learn a healthy lifestyle without sacrificing a little bit of extra money? If you need to lose more than 30 pounds, you probably need to change more than the way you spend your money.
And, as for all the customer service nightmares that seem to circulate around the internet, 90% are simply not true. I have only had a 100% positive experience. I only hear a bunch of complainers when they can’t stick to a really easy plan and they want an excuse to quit.
I don’t work for Nutrisytem, by the way. I just sing their praises every time I get on the scale.
I was depressed and frustrated because of my weight and, what i thought was, a lack of self-discipline. the nutrisystem program is great and most of the foods are delicious.
So you spend 10$ a day on food? you grow healthy? What do you spend each day 5$ on food if you do not go out to eat at all. You probably can eat chaper if your not going out to eat. So you could just count calories and cook it all yourself always a cheaper way. But then you wouldn’t be thinking about a controlling your diet, if you did not have a problem.
To have any success at weight loss. you must have a goal and you must stick with it to lose pounds.
Weight loss is really a simple process. You don’t need the latest system, whether its Nutrisystem or something else. What you need is a way to track your caloric intake. Eat less calories than you burn. It’s that simple. It’s not always easy, but it is that simple.
Talk about “misusing” words! There is no “fine print” about their offer – try reading the very first line of the coupon YOU have posted above – it says it all. In normal print, it says “Select the NEW Advanced 28-day Auto Delivery Program and you get …” Sounds like YOU are trying to make a story where there is none just so you can “expose” it.
There is only one way to determine if “free” is actually “free”. If someone is offering “buy one get one free”, what does it cost for just one? If the item is normally $1, and during the “free offer” you can buy just one for 50 cents, then it is NOT “free” it is 1/2 off. If the price is $1 whether you take one or two, then the second is really free.
For the NutriSystem offer, according to their website current on 06/29/2009, their basic program is $333.28 plus $18.95 shipping if you go month to month. If you sign up for auto delivery, you get a 10% discount and free shipping, which makes your 28 day cost $299.95. Under the normal promo, to encourage you to sign up for autoship, they offer one free week of food with your first autoship order, and you pay the same $299.95 whether you accept the “free” bonus week or not. You cannot negotiate and say “I only want 28 days, so discount me 20% instead”.
With their normal promo, they only offer one free week with that 1st order, then your following orders are for the standard 28 day package. Under the new promo, they extend the “free” week so that you get a second “free” week with your 2nd order, and a third “free” week with your 3rd order. I don’t care how you try to spin it, that is a total of 15 weeks of meals, with 3 weeks of FREE meals you will NOT be receiving with your 4th, 5th, and 6th orders, for the SAME amount of money you would normally have spent on just 12 weeks of meals . . . and you can NOT get the 12 weeks of meals at a reduced price by refusing the additional 3 weeks. That makes it FREE.
They don’t say “free” with no requirements. It’s kind of like a Senior Citizens discount – yes, you HAVE to be a Senior Citizen to get it. Here, you have to be an autoship customer to get it. It is still free.
I saw the commercial for three free weeks yesterday and it is not clear at all that you have to join for three months. I agree it should be worded with full disclosure. I am a fine print reader and could find no fine print on the site.(I went to the site to order and could not figure out how to get the three free weeks)