Advertising: Puffery Vs. Deceptive
Advertising: Puffery Vs. Deceptive
As I was searching through Bon A petit, a magazine that specializes in cooking, an invigorating ad caught my attention. It was a picture of a young blonde woman, with a look of absolute joy on her face as she is swinging in the park. Next to this picture the ad read, “Feel the freedom at FreeSamples.com. Log on and choose from a bunch of goodies-everything from cappuccino to cosmetics. It’s all free, and it’s yours for the taking. So add a little fun to your day at www.FreeSamples.com.” Next to those words were small pictures of Physique Shampoo, Cascade detergent, Tide, and Mrs. Dash.
I logged onto the website and immediately had to register an email address and a password before I could even check out the samples. The ad in the magazine did not state that you needed an email address or even submit one; this would qualify as an omission therefore leading to deceptive advertising. After I hesitatingly gave my email address I had to answer about fifteen questions such as, “What was the combined income for all members of your household in 2000 before tax? What is your marital status?” Had I known that I was going to fill out a survey, submit personal information in order to get the free samples I would have not logged on to the website.
After I submitted all of my personal information, I then was taken to another page that had only two products to sample, not a bunch that the ad proclaimed. I thought maybe I was not looking hard enough for the samples so I clicked on an icon that said cosmetics, hoping to find some shampoo samples or make-up, and it said, “ currently there are no products for sample.” So I tried all of the categories: groceries, food and beverage, pets, house ware, and again no products for sample. I felt cheated, after submitting a market research survey of personal information for the website, I anticipated “a bunch” of products like the ad said only to find two offerings. The samples that the ad showed in print were also not any where to be found.
The next advertisement was for Aroma Fit, a healthy body treatment fragrance by Lancome. A young female...