R.M. of Connecticut wrote to us last week complaining about a Lowe’s TV commercial that featured quite a deal on a Weber grill during their first ever SpringFest event.
This was exactly the three-burner Weber grill she was looking for, and she knew they were normally over $500. However, R.M. discovered that $379 was not the actual sale price for this model but only by freeze-framing the commercial on her 60-inch HDTV so she could read the fine print.
*MOUSE PRINT:
The real price of this unit was more than double the price shown on the screen, and that was only disclosed in tiniest of print for less than four seconds. The big print $379 price was actually for a lower-end unit and only for a two-burner model at that.
Under state consumer law, such as the one in Massachusetts, pictorial misrepresentations are just as deceptive as verbal ones.
No advertisement shall be used which would mislead or tend to mislead buyers or prospective buyers, through pictorial representations or in any other manner, as to the product being offered for sale.
We wrote to Lowe’s three times asking why they would run such a misleading ad, and how it might avoid similar issues in the future. The company did not respond and that says a lot.
