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Disclaimers

F

Frank Ferreri

Just heard an ad for a car dealer. There was a music bed with a barely audible voice in the background. Apparently a disclaimer. The audio version of the super fine print in newspaper ads. There is something that just ain't right about car ads. Yes, the goal is to get people on your lot, however, what they hear or see in an ad usually doesn't exist. What if all retailers went that route. Say Sears advertises a 70 inch TV for $400. In the fine print it says with $1000 down, beacon score of 800, store (dealer) charge of $600, and financing through their credit company. There would be unhappy customers when they get to the store, yet car dealers do it all the time and no one takes them to task. Just askin'
 
Remember when there was a "truth in advertising" law?
How about the TV spots telling you that some product is absolutely free .... just pay shipping and handling.
It's not absolutely free.
 
Frank Ferreri said:
Just heard an ad for a car dealer. There was a music bed with a barely audible voice in the background. Apparently a disclaimer. The audio version of the super fine print in newspaper ads. There is something that just ain't right about car ads. Yes, the goal is to get people on your lot, however, what they hear or see in an ad usually doesn't exist. What if all retailers went that route. Say Sears advertises a 70 inch TV for $400. In the fine print it says with $1000 down, beacon score of 800, store (dealer) charge of $600, and financing through their credit company. There would be unhappy customers when they get to the store, yet car dealers do it all the time and no one takes them to task. Just askin'
Click to expand...

Yeahhhh...those have been around this market for years. Those hyenas and jackals who make minimum wage that draws on commission would spin the conversation within 30 seconds of hearing the complaint ("Hey little lady, won't the boys just whistle at you when they see you behind the wheel of this (insert overly priced lemon model here).

What's kind of funny..sadly...is that you 'll hear back to back car ads...from different dealers...In the day, that got either the board op or traffic guy/girl a verbal whipping or termination.
 
Sadly, that ad technique is also used by some stations for their top-of-the-hour IDs. For people who may have an interest in identifying the station or town (such as a DXer), it is a very frustrating practice.
 
dwtpa97 said:
Sadly, that ad technique is also used by some stations for their top-of-the-hour IDs. For people who may have an interest in identifying the station or town (such as a DXer), it is a very frustrating practice.
Click to expand...

Kind of like 540WFLA? Their top-of-the-hour ID gives the actual call letters (WFLF) but it's very difficult to understand. The FCC calls the practice 'branding' ...
 
well at least WWRM (formerly warm and now magic) slides their ID in using two tracks, with the intensity of an announcer describing a putt in the game of golf...
 
It is no longer "shipping and handling". It is now "processing" inferring that the word "handling" was a function of the shipping action, and that a retailer can not charge twice for the same action, so after nearly 2.5 million in legal fees the word "handling" was replaced with "processing" money well spent ;)

As for disclaimers, you will notice a lot of the car spots are placing the disclaimer at the FRONT of the commercial to give the impression that the disclaimer is part of the proceeding spot..kinda clever. I do a BOAT load of these..also the "specials" and "amazing deals" are 86'ed by the phrase "exclusive of that...". Example: "...NO MONEY DOWN OR NO PAYMENT FOR ONE FULL YEAR! PLUS Exclusive of that...PROGRAM NEW BRAND NAME SUVS ARE AS LOW AS 12,500!

Translation: the "new" SUV does not qualify for the no money down or no payment option because it is being sold "exclusive" of that offer. it is a "Program" car. This means it was previously in a lease "program" and while it is considered new..it is not. Watch "Let's Make A deal" sometime and notice that they are giving away literally USED cars. They look new, but the description give the year of the car being given away..and brand new shows are still giving away 2010 vehicles. The viewers just presume they are new. They aren't

Also..a lot of times the sleazy spot producer will time compress the disclaimer, and add "distracting" music. A common practice is to add a very slow tempo music track and bury the quick paced disclaimer..typically a George Shearing instrumental track that is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than the style of the track used in the rest of the spot. It is legal.
 
My quick and dirty car disclaimer is short and sweet:

"Everything thing you just heard is a lie"

Strangely enough they never let me run it...
 
Has one ever heard a car ad "disclaimer" on the radio in Spanish?? Yikes---often there are more syllables for equivalent words in Spanish than English, hence the hyper mode!

cd
 
They've pushed the envelope too far. As Jeff mentioned the disclaimer is in front of the spot now so it sounds as if it is part of the previous element. Cool bed and an almost inaudible voice and then the spot. My initial post questioned why false advertsing isn't held accountable or questioned.
 
It's not false..it's FAST. A listener would have a hard time with a complaint about words being spoken too fast for them. I recall that our old pal WPLP had constant calls from listeners who accused the hosts of speaking to quickly for them, to understand. The listeners don't have the exclusive right to have things spoken.....slowly.....for.....them.....to.....comprehend. If that were to be the case..younger listeners could complain that the voice person was speaking too slowly, thus wasting time..because they are young, and important and don't have the time to listen to that stuff...we could all complain that auctioneers speak too fast..and horse race announcers, and on and on.

I do remember that the "Electronics Doctor" Joe LeColste on WPLP used to sell a special cassette recorder that you could play back at half speed, and it had a chip in it that preserved the pitch of the voice so "you never miss a word of your favorite news broadcast"

I still have my "Tune-A-Tenna"
 
Or was that a "Select A Tenna". You put it next to the radio and tuned the antenna to the frequency of the station you wanted to hear. I remember when we got the power boost to 5k watts and then 10k at night. Unfortunately the six antenna field in Odessa turned out to be the world's biggest lightning attractor and we kept getting hit by lightning.
 
I look at it this way: If you have faith in the product you are offering, why aren't you proud of it?

There are a few exceptions, but if a car dealer wants to screw around with their ad, I'm not going there (unless I'm getting free Rays tickets for the test drive). The management has the final say - they are paying for it!

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
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