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July 4th Sales Gone Awry

We’ve got two stories this week, submitted by readers, all complaining about deceptive July 4th sales.

Story #1:

One of the most common forms of retail advertising is to promote a storewide sale on “everything.” Rarely is everything really on sale, but retailers still insist on using the word “everything.”

CVS Pharmacy is no exception. Just in time for July 4th, they sent out a mass email with the subject line: “4th of July Sale- 20% off EVERYTHING! 3 Days Only on CVS.com .” No exceptions, no exclusions, no asterisks. However, when you open the email, you see the graphic above with the small asterisk after “everything.”

The asterisk inevitably leads to a long list of exclusions.

*MOUSE PRINT:

*Offer available online only. Expires 6/30/10 at 11:59 PM EDT. To receive the 20% off sitewide discount enter coupon code JULY20 at check out. These products are not discounted: AeroGarden, Align, Alli, Acra Hair Removal Device, As Seen on TV products, Beauty 360 products, Belli, Better Body Solutions, Bodi Rocker, Burts Bees, Conair Infinity, Epilady, GHT, GoWear, Hormel, Ionic Pro, Jitterbug, Kelemata, Kidco, LaneLabs, LaRoche-Posay, Lierac, LipFusion, Maxoderm, Medela, Medical Nutrition Products, Olay Pro X, Omnilux, OXO, Philips Heartstart Home Defibrillator, Rapidlash, Resperate, Rock Hard Weekend, Sinupulse, Skin Doctors, Vector Hair Removal System, Vichy/Dermablend, Violight, Zanfel, Zeno. The 20% sale cannot be combined with another product sale running at the same time. You will receive the larger discount. The 20% sale excludes prescriptions and gift cards.

Thanks to Richard A. for the submission.

Story #2:

PetSmart sent out an email telling shoppers they could save up to $15 with coupons this weekend, both online and at their stores.

Here’s a part of their email:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Offer valid through July 4, 2010 at 6am ET

Nothing like having to get up early on a holiday morning — before 3am West coast time, and before 6am East coast time to use the coupon online before it expires. And the 6am time was not a typo, because trying to use it at 9am resulted in this error message:

Incidentally, their brick and mortar coupons were good all day at the store because they did not have a time of day expiration.

Thanks to Kelsey P. for the submission.

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UPDATE: Dawn: 1 Bottle = $1 to Save Wildlife?

Our story on P&G and their promotion promising to give $1 to wildlife causes for every bottle of Dawn sold has been updated, based on new information provided by the company.

See update here, at the end of the original story.

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Which Company Really Offers the Most HD?

For a while last year, it seems like every cable and satellite provider was claiming to have the most HD programming. If they all claim to have more, someone’s not telling the truth.

Here is DirecTV’s “To Tell the Truth” commercial claiming to have more HD than Dish Network or cable.

But then you had Comcast claiming to have more HD than satellite:

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Can you believe anyone? DirecTV challenged Comcast’s claims before the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau, where the organization reviewed Comcast’s claims in TV commercials such as:

· “More HD”
· “Comcast has more HD than satellite. More HD than anyone.”
· “More HD choices”
· “More HD Options”
· “You might think DIRECTV has more HD than Comcast but you’re wrong!”

Here is part of NAD’s ruling.

*MOUSE PRINT:

“Following its review of the evidence, NAD determined that DIRECTV currently offers the most HD channels and Comcast, by combining its HD channels and HD On Demand library, currently offers the broadest selection of HD programming. NAD also determined that “claims like ‘More HD Choices’ or ‘More HD Options’ is a logical way to describe the combination of linear HD channels and HD content On Demand available to Comcast subscribers.” However, NAD also found that, depending on the context in which such claims appear, they could also be reasonably interpreted to mean “More HD channels” – as the challenger argued. NAD recommended that that the advertiser modify five separate commercials to avoid consumer confusion.”

The bottom line is that both companies confused the public as to the quantity of HD offerings they had. So if you are shopping for a new provider, look at the channel lineup of each company to see what is actually being offered in your area.

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