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Wry Heat - by Jonathan DuHamel

“Free Gift”

by on Oct. 09, 2009, under Miscellaneous Stories

We all see redundantly offered “free gift” advertisements.  But the products are neither “free” nor “gifts” because we must purchase something else in order to receive the “gift.”  In my opinion, such offers constitute false advertising.  Attorneys general should go after the advertisers to stop this practice. Anybody else feel the same way?

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 8:46 am and is filed under Miscellaneous Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • ldonyo

    Yes, I feel the same way, Jonathan. I also think that nothing should be labeled as ‘free’ if there is a shipping and handling charge.

  • tiponeill

    Dan Ariely has published an excellent paper on the value of FREE.
    New Yorker had an article about it.

    • Jonathan DuHamel

      These links both go to interesting papers on the psychology of buying. My premise in the blog is that offering “free gifts” is fundamentally dishonest when you must also purchase something else or pay shipping charges as Idonyo points out.

  • leftfield

    I certainly feel the same way, but I’m surprised to hear you support investigating and/or prosecuting the offenders, Jonathan.  I had you figured as more of a libertarian, “let-the buyer-beware”, “it’s your personal responsibility to read the fine print” type.  It must be the good news about that Nobel prize that has you feeling all warm, fuzzy and liberal. 

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