Rant: Disclaimers

So I was watching TV last night and an ad came on for the new Pizza Hut special offer - you know the one where you get three 1-topping pizzas for $6 (which in itself is ridiculous and I'll probably tell you why in a later post). Well right at the very end of the ad was Mr Speedy Voice Man and the last thing he said was "prices may vary".

I just about fell off my chair!!

The whole point of the ad was to advertise the $6 deal so come on YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING! So I had a look at the web site - and there it was again - but this time it was "prices may vary by region". Fair enough. But on the TV ad, wouldn't it be easier to say "from $6"? Why go to all the trouble of repeating 230 times on the ad that it will be $6, then have a ridiculous disclaimer that is basically saying "don't listen to us because now we can really charge anything we like!!!"

I'm not sure whether it was a Canadian or US ad but are you as a nation so bogged down in the miry clay of litigation that you have to resort to this? I have noticed that there are disclaimers everywhere here in North America - so much so that you eventually just ignore the ads completely because you just start thinking they're lying anyway.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.