Friday, April 17, 2009

We do love the asterisks*



I read this online and couldn't resist sharing it. We marketers do love the asterisks*



*I'm no stranger to the asterisk. I can relate to the struggle of trying to summarise an offer, that requires lots of terms and conditions, into a headline. This offer seems pretty good. But the headline still feels wrong.

3 comments:

Samantha Hartley | Enlightened Marketing said...

Paul, Thanks for sharing this. I feel like consumers are losing their tolerance for the asterisk. However, I'm impressed by the minimal amount of small print in this ad. At my previous global multinational employer, we had a whole company subcontracted that specialized in making sure promotions like this one went according to law and fairness. There was WAY more small print.

Personally, I don't mind the asterisk in this example as much as the language "You must visit..." Too bossy!

Paul Dervan said...

Thanks Samantha. It's that struggle between what we want our offers to be and what they actually are. Throw in a max of a few seconds of interest before audience is gone, and it becomes a tough gig.

Could be worse of course...

Nick McGivney said...

They could've easily avoided the asterisk completely by saying Any film, any time, any day with any unhappy meal.Does it.