At the end of many podcast and radio ads, I am hearing the phrase “Terms apply” tacked on. Why would they need to say this? In virtually any commercial transaction, there are terms, and they apply. Why do they have to add this gratuitous bit of vague fluff?
Because without the disclaimer a certain portion of customers would demand the free cell phone without signing the required two year contract (or whatever) and would sue the advertiser on the grounds that since it wasn’t mentioned in the ad, signing a contract or whatever wasn’t part of the deal. Then some lawyer would assemble a class action lawsuit and the whole thing would turn into a giant pain. “Terms apply” is just a brief way of saying, “there’s going to be fine print in this offer, so buyer beware.”
Variations include the extremely small print in automobile lease ads and the incredibly unintelligible speeded up disclaimers at the end of some radio commericals.
Yeah, every time there’s something like this in a commercial, it’s because someone in the past has sued about it somewhere, and the corporate lawyers are trying to avoid the cost and trouble of playing whack-a-mole with idiots who think that an ad says “Free cell phone” is a binding promise, when in reality everyone with a lick of sense knows it isn’t that simple.
Even if they’re in the right, and the other person ends up paying the court costs, there are still costs to the company for having to deal with that. It’s far easier to put disclaimers and other stuff on there to try and head it off at the pass. I suspect that often that stuff is there to signal to the plaintiff lawyers that they’re aware of it, and they’re not going to get a freebie settlement because they didn’t think of that particular loophole.