Forty percent discount, BUT conditions apply

I open the newspaper and I see this ad. (Scroll to see the entire ad)

So I can go to Globus and get a flat 40% off on all that I like. That’s fantastic.

Hold on a bit. I put on my reading glasses and the copy in the smaller type comes into focus. There’s an asterisk adjacent to the shouting numerals ‘40’. I look around for the descriptor for the asterisk and I find it – it says ‘conditions apply’.

What conditions? I have no clue.

But I do know, now, that it isn’t as simple as the headline - I can’t just walk into Globus and shove a whole lot of goods into the shopping basket and get delighted by a 40% discount.

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I spend some more time on the ad.

“Shop for Rs. 4,000/- with your ICICI Bank Credit or Debit Card & get a gift voucher worth 5% of your invoice value.”

So is it time to dust off your ICICI Bank Card and keep the others away?

Not quite. ‘Redeemable upto 31st Oct ‘11 on Globus and F21 brands. Conditions apply,’ the copy goes on to say. 

So a quick glance at the ad promises me 40% off and a voucher equal to 5% of my invoice if I use an ICICI Bank debit or credit card - but some more time spent on the ad tells me that I might not get the 40% and I might not get the voucher.

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Obviously, I’m feeling a little deflated, but the deflation hasn’t ended. ‘ICICI Bank disclaims all responsibilities and liabilities that may arise out of this offer including the good/service provided by Globus.’

So as I’m feeling cheated by Globus and ICICI (without having bought any ‘good’ or service), ICICI Bank tells me that they are not quite sure about Globus and that they disclaim all ‘responsibilties and liabilities that may arise… including the ‘good/service’ that Globus might provide me.

Open any newspaper on any day and you’re flooded with ads like these. Globus and ICICI Bank are just examples of two brands who talk with forked tongue - hundreds of other brands do so every day.

It’s fast reaching a stage when an ad cannot be created without a lawyer checking the content before the material goes to the publisher.

What happened to the old fashioned way of building a brand - when you delivered on what you told the customer he would receive and the customer truly trusted you? The longer you delivered on your promises, the more he trusted you, bought from you, recommended you.

It’s when a brand makes a promise that delights - and then says, ‘hey, that’s not what I promised, you didn’t hear what I said under my breath’, then customers lose respect for a brand. Just because a legal department said that the copy was now okay and you wouldn’t get into legal trouble by stretching the truth is not reason enough to go ahead with this piece of communication.

You might not get into trouble with the courts, but you will certainly be in trouble with disgruntled customers…