It’s a frenzy of freebies, free facebook here, free whatsapp there, free messages here, double talk time there everywhere you turn, you are being offered some free service.
One would be naïve to believe that the services are actually free for the simple reason that nothing is free. However, it is a human tendency to seek out cheaper, free and newer things and that is what leads us down the rabbit hole into the world of false advertisements.
Marketing gurus adopt simple marketing strategies based on consumer behaviour to lure you to buy what you had not planned to. For example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food advertising when they are hungry, they schedule snack advertisements late in the afternoon.
Likewise, it is in human nature to try and get the best deal and what is a better deal than something that you can get free of charge? So even though a certain service being offered to us is not free, the seller, in this case a mobile phone company, will place a big advertisement saying it is free.
The ‘FREE’ offer is usually in bold, bright and easy see colours while the terms and conditions’ are in fine print but does this amount to false advertisement? Not quite, these companies are too cunning to make such trivial errors that might cost them a fortune.
First, most of these advertisements are on billboards which means that you only have a few seconds to see them before your vehicle zooms by. All you really have time to see is the brand name and the free offer in bold, bright colours. In a study called ‘Impact of Colour in Marketing’ researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on colour alone.
Once you are’ netted’ by the explosive bright coloured advertisement that promises you free products, you rarely have time or self discipline to read the fine print after all, when you zoom by a billboard at 50km/h, you stand little chance of reading the terms and conditions.
The same is the case for TV and radio advertisement where the presenter speaks slowly and audibly when promising you free products but speeds through the terms and conditions.
The next thing you know, you have paid for a week’s worth of product that you did not budget for and worse still, you find out that the subscription is recurrent, you are charged every week.
When it comes to mobile phone bundles, there are many examples such as these ranging from hidden charges to time bond packages that you can’t carry over when the time expires.
In the long run, it is you the consumer that carries the responsibility of double checking what you are paying for lest you subscribe to a ‘free’ bundle that is actually charging you every week.
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