Case study 2: Sales promotion ad

casestudy2

An example of a sales promotion ad on a sweet packet. What's wrong and right?

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Halloween DVD offer on Sweet packet

Package Contents:

Front of packet:

Sticky Sweets

Collect free DVDs for Halloween with Sticky Sweets. Don’t miss our scarily exclusive Halloween offer!

Back of packet:

Collect free DVDs for Halloween. Simply collect three special tickets from Sticky Sweets packets to receive a free horror film on DVD. Terms and conditions apply.

Terms and Conditions
To receive your free DVD send three tokens and a cheque or postal order for £5.99 to cover post and packing to: Sticky Sweets DVD promotions, Sticky Sweets House, Sticky Street, Sticky Town, ST2 8SW. Only one DVD per household. Subject to availability.  Closing date 15 December 2005.  

Issues with Promotion:

Extract: ‘Collect free DVDs for Halloween’
Issue:  You have to collect tokens to receive a DVD, and this should be clear, e.g. ‘Collect 3 tokens and receive a free DVD.’ 

Extract: ‘Subject to availability.  Closing date 15 December 2005.’
Issue: The offer closes in December – consider changing the closing date to make it more relevant to Halloween.  

Extract: ‘…from Sticky Sweets packets to receive a free horror film on DVD’
Issue: What is the nature of the ‘horror film’ and what is its certificate? Is this an appropriate item to offer as a free gift for a promotion that children might take part in?  

Extract: ‘…send three tokens and a cheque or postal order for £5.99 to cover post and packing to’
Issue: Free items should not include a packing charge and consumers should pay no more than the true cost of freight or delivery. Is £5.99 really the ‘true; cost? 

Extract: ‘Only one DVD per household. Subject to availability’
Issue: This claim would not relieve the promoters of the obligation to take all reasonable steps to avoid disappointing participants. Promoters should be able to demonstrate that the have made a reasonable estimate of likely response and are capable of meeting that response.