For me, its any price that includes nines. The more nines, the more I hate it. $999.99!! Aaaugh!!
Then there are prices advertised “as low as” or “from”. "We have cars from $99.99. Or how about, "Check out our deals on tires, as low as $19.99 each!! Well, yes, that is for a 4.0x12 which would probably be suitable for a go-cart, but over here we have tires for your car for only $99.99 each plus $9.99 each for mounting and $9.99 each for balancing.
So…which sales practices drive you up the wall?
Well, this isn’t exactly advertising, but…
In my favorite store, the mirrors are tilted so that you look skinnier when you look in them. It makes you think the clothes are slimming.
I despise that “All calls up to twenty minutes for only 99 cents” bullshit. That means they charge you 99 cents even if you get the answering machine and hang up! This is only a good deal in selected situations! Don’t listen to them! Don’t use it all the time!
I just hate it because it’s so easy to see how they’re making money off you. It irks me that they don’t even bother to be deceptive about it, because apparently their customers are too dumb to figure it out on their own.
I know, I bet a lot of people do use it only in situations where it saves money, and know it’s a rip-off for short calls, but the ads encourage you to use it all the time.
What I hate are asterisks next to prices or other items mentioned in the ad. I don’t know if this really counts as deceptive, but since they don’t make the information offset by an asterisk very clear and probably don’t really want you to know it, in a way it’s deceptive. I don’t like having to search for what the asterisk is referring to, and often times it isn’t at the bottom of the page where I would expect it. If and when I do find it, it will be in really tiny print.
I also hate the sped-up talking at the end of radio ads, which is the audio equivalent of fine print:
(offergoodwhilesupplieslastonlyonecpouponpercustomerlimitedtostockonhandoffervoidwhereprohibitedseestorefordetails…)
This isn’t really advertising, but I hate the way timeshares try to trick you into a sales meeting. Most of the time they say you’ve won one of three things but you have to come spend an hour and a half listening to them pitch to you. One place we went gave you a scratch off lottery ticket type deal and one of the “prizes” was $500. Well obviously the $500 was a discount off the price of a $20,000 timeshare. Whoop-de-doo! Another prize was a free week at same timeshare, but of course you have to pay for your airfare, etc. to get there. The third prize was I think a camcorder. I’m guessing there were no cards printed up that had the camcorder as a prize, lol.
Internet banner and pop-up ads that disguise themselves as a Windows warning with newbie-scaring messages like “Your system is not secure!” Even more, I hate the supposedly reputable websites that allow them.
I hate places that advertise “sales” which are really their regular prices. I used to work at Michael’s Craft store as a picture framer (I work someplace much better now), and their 50% off “one week only” coupon is one of the reasons I don’t work there any more. They run that “one week only” coupon for practically all but one week of the year. It’s deceptive because people think they’re getting a good deal, but their regular prices are artificially inflated (coincidentally almost exactly double of our regular prices) so that the coupon tends to work out to just the lower end of the market average. No one buys anything during the little time the coupon is off!
That’s one of the reasons among many why I don’t work there any more.
Those are not only terrible, but they prompt my mother and sister to anxiously phone me, to say with alarm “The Internet says my computer isn’t secure! What do I do?”
British Telecom advertises a broadband service that it won’t sell me, because I live in a rural area (albeit one very very close to a town that they’ve stuck a hub into). Furthermore, they arbitrarily raised the threshold quota after local business people arranged a meeting to show BT how many people in the area would take up the service. Bastards.
And if you call in the next 20 minutes…
Pretty much any company that reduces the size of the product and then slaps a “New! Improved!” on the label.
“100% Fruit Juice”.
You’d be amazed at what you can do to a liquid and still have it considered “100% Juice” or “No Sugar Added”.
How about the huge list of things for sale that just plain don’t work.
Cell Phone Antenna boosters.
Psychics
Many of the miracle cleaner ads (Tarnex is the only thing I have ever seen that works just like it does on TV)
etc.
All of them. Advertising reminds me of this cartoon with a mother sitting with her son in front of a TV set saying: “No, he can’t fly, no, he can’t stop a speeding bullet, no, he can’t break concrete with his hands, no, he can’t see through buildings, no…”
Good advertising alerts me to something (something I can afford) that I didn’t know about. It shows me how it might be fun or useful in my life.
Most advertising sells me cars I wouldn’t like, medications I don’t need, food I shouldn’t be eating because of high fat content, extreme sports equipment I’ll never try. All the while trying to convince me I would – long enough for the thing to sit for 5 years in a garage.
My particular pet peeve: Loud, incredibly unoriginal rock music with some idiot shouting over the top. Gee, it sounds like the top 40, it looks like the top 40… maybe I better jump on the bandwagon quick!
I hate pop-up boxes with buttons that look like the ones you use to close the window, but in fact lead you to more of their crappy advertising. I can’t believe this actually works - are there actually people out there going “Bleh, another pop-up. I’m going to close the wind - well lookee here! I’d better get me ten of these!” :rolleyes:
There’s currently an ad on TV here for the “Crossing Over” guy - John Edwards? Something like that - I know he’s been reamed a couple of times on this board. What annoys me is that the ad is promoting him like he’s the genuine thing and saying stuff like “After this, you will believe” and rah rah about his psychic powers. I know that networks are meant to promote their programs, but this blatant disregard of truth and logic appalls me. Every time I see the ad I fume.
I’m fairly relaxed (read: cynical) about most advertising techniques, but the one that really annoys me is the use of accurate claims made out of context. My dad is a food research scientist and can come up with examples of this at the drop of a hat, not least the soft cheese producers that claim “5% less fat!” proudly, when their products still contain ludicrously healthy amounts of fat, or the crisps manufacturer (potato chips) that claimed “25% less fat” by making the packets 25% smaller than before.
I hate this one, too. Usually as much of that “100% juice” as they can possibly get away with is apple or white grape. They’re cheap, they’re very sweet, and they are no more nutritious than Kool-Aid. But the ads convince parents that they’re being virtuous by letting Jason and Snotleigh guzzle this stuff by the gallon.
I hate when you get home with a big ol’ bag of chips, tear it open, and there’s about an inch-thick layer of em in the bottom. Oh, I know it’s packing techniques or whatever, but it still annoys me.
That’s part of the reason I changed my system’s colours from the defaults. If the window has the standard blue title bar, then I know it’s a fake.
Anyway, I hate the Macintosh ads with some idiot going on about all the problems they had with PCs. I don’t know anyone who has ever had as many problems as they claim to have. Even my technically illiterate parents managed to install a scanner and digital camera themselves.
It also bugs me a bit the way supermarkets mark prices as “2 for $5”, implying that you have to buy two at a time, when really they’re $2.50 each.
The worst for me are the companies which send what appear to be checks but which are actually lures for you to purchase something, e.g. if you cash this $5.00 check, by signing it, you have signed up for our $60.00 per year newsletter.
Yes, I know it only catches chumps, but chumps have rights to. I really do find it despicable and dishonorable and I will not do business with any company which uses such a tactic because if they’re willing to lie to me to get my business, who’ll knows what they’ll do after they get it.
CJ