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Gorilla Glue: Toughest Glue on Planet Earth*

Gorilla glue No one wants a weak glue. So it is a good thing we can buy Gorilla Glue which the maker claims is “the toughest glue on planet earth.”

Even on their website in answer to the question, “Is it really the Toughest Glue on Planet Earth,” they say “Gorilla Glue is an all purpose adhesive. If used correctly, it will bond just about anything and for just about forever. It is free of solvents and fillers which makes it both strong and versatile. There are some things that are just difficult to glue, such as certain plastics, but we are confident that once you’ve tried Gorilla Glue, you will be more than satisfied with the results.” [GorillaGlue.com FAQ, August 1, 2006]

So, pretty much, they are sticking to their claim. The makers of Elmer’s Glue, however, were not buying it. They challenged that advertised claim with the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau [NAD]. Elmer’s argued that “the toughest glue on planet earth” was a specific, superiority claim and wanted to see their substantiation.

According to NAD, Gorilla Glue provided no evidence to support its superiority claim, but offered this explanation:

*MOUSE PRINT: The “toughest glue” claim was mere puffery and “is so broad in scope, so general in nature, and so exaggerated in content, that no reasonable consumer would believe it to be a superiority claim.”

If that kind of logic were allowed to stand, then any advertiser could make specific claims about their products and defend those claims by in essence saying that a consumer would have to be an idiot to believe our advertising.

The NAD adhered to their set of interpretations of what constitutes a real claim and what constitutes puffery, and ruled against Gorilla Glue. They recommended discontinuing the claim on their packages and in advertising.

Gorilla is appealing the case, but somehow the “just kidding” disclaimer has not yet found its way onto the product.

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Mazda Madness: $21,000 Cars for $9500*

imazda

Can you really get a brand new 2007 Mazda worth over $21,000 for less than $10,000? This local car dealer apparently uses the new math to come up with this bargain.

*MOUSE PRINT: The dealer assumes you will make a $9000 down payment either by cash or trade and deducts that from the MSRP to create an artificially low advertised price. [Boston Globe, September 10, 2006]

Mazda small Here is another example from a different dealer.

Talk about an eye-catching price for a brand new Mazda Tribute. It is just over $10,000 for a $22,000 car. How in the world is that possible?

The answer is, it isn’t possible, unless you play with the numbers.

*MOUSE PRINT: The $10,090 price assumes a cash down payment or trade in worth $5500 to arrive at their artificially low advertised price. [Boston Globe, July 30, 2006 and net ad]

Here is how they work the math:

MSRP: $22,590
Cash or Trade in: -$5500
Discount up to: -$7000
================

Advertised Price: $10,090

These dealers are deliberately treating a form of payment — a cash down payment or a trade in — as a discount from the price. What you put down is never considered a discount from the price.

With their kind of logic, a home builder could advertise a $400,000 house for only $10 (assuming you also agree to give him a $399,990 down payment).

This type of advertising is reprehensible. What do you think?

 

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Big Brother: Little Print*

big bro1 smallNothing is more popular these days with young people than “texting” — sending a text message via a cellphone. Capitalizing on this trend, most reality shows on television have built in this kind of interactivity into their programs. American Idol popularized “text voting” for your favorite singer,  and millions of people participated for free (except for whatever usual charge your cell company imposes for sending a text message — typically 10 cents).

Other reality shows have jumped on the bandwagon, but have turned texting into a money making machine for the networks and the program. Take CBS’ Big Brother, for example. The ad above has been running on each episode of the show over the past couple of months, inviting people to text the word “FAN” to 99888. Those who do are promised pictures of the cast, ringtones, and alerts about the show. Does being a “fan” cost anything?

*MOUSE PRINT: “$5.99 per month subscription fee billed through your wireless phone bill.”

There is no oral disclosure of the price during the commercial, and as you can see, even magnified, the mouse print price disclosure is almost unreadable. CBS does notify you when you make the call that there is a charge, but funny how clear disclosure is missing from the ad itself.

Had CBS been using a 900 number as the means of triggering this information service, federal law would have required oral price disclosure in the commercial. But, the 900 number rules were written before the advent of pay-per-call services triggered by text messaging, and thus CBS’ non-oral-disclosure falls through the cracks.

big bro2 smallIn addition to the “FAN” commercial, Big Brother also supers on the screen this other invitation to part with $5.99 a month, twice during each show. There is no price disclosure oral or written, but viewers are invited to go to the Internet “for terms.”

Though the net is widespread, not everyone has access to it, and while some people mulitask, most folks watching television are not sitting in front of their computers at the same time. Thus, disclosure of the price is again masked.

If the networks can’t make reasonable and clear disclosure of the price of text games and text services, the Federal Trade Commission needs to step in to update its pay per call rules to include this now pervasive form of advertising of pay services.

 

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