by wryheat on Oct.09, 2009, under Life

“Free Gift”

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?

4 Comments for this entry

ldonyo
October 9th, 2009 on 9:24 am
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.

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tiponeill
October 9th, 2009 on 10:40 am
Dan Ariely has published an excellent paper on the value of FREE.
New Yorker had an article about it.

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- Jonathan DuHamel
  October 9th, 2009 on 11:21 am
  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.
  
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leftfield
October 9th, 2009 on 1:06 pm
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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