Radio is a popular medium for advertisers, such as mortgage companies, to promote special offers. But the last few seconds are sometimes filled with unintelligble, fast-talking disclaimers.
I get it. It's the law that disclaimers are needed. But when they are unintelligible, what's the point? And who gets hurt? The consumer.
Take a look at this humorous example at just how silly these ads end up.
Now in case you didn't figure it out, these advertisers do not actually hire fast talking humans to handle the disclaimer (back in the pre-digital days they did). Rather, it is handled digitally. They simply remove all the dead air between words and apply other enhancements to squeeze all that legal mumbo jumbo into just a few seconds.
On my planet, legislation would be more business friendly and provide a means for consumers to obtain the legal mumbo jumbo in a clearly written, or spoken fashion. This could be done via phone number, email or website. The end of the commercial could say "to get the fine print of this offer call..." or "text mortgagead to 5556" or "visit our fine print page online at www...."
Advertisers would then be in a position to provide a much more valuable "fine print" experience for their customers and prospects and not look and sound so silly trying to comply with laws and lawyer opinions which result in so much language being squeezed in at the end of an ad.
The same can be said for television disclaimers. Ever notice how the fine print is microscopic at the end of a commercial? There's 5, 10, 15 lines of text. You can't read it. It's there because it's the law. But it adds no value to the ad if it can't be read. And it makes the advertiser look dishonest.
Good intentioned consumer-friendly legislation is being designed and implemented poorly. On my planet it will be better for consumers. It's a win-win because it doesn't disrupt the legislation, just the delivery channels of it. It will be better for advertisers who can still comply in more practical ways. The lawyers still get their slice of the pie writing these legal statements. The politicians still get the feather in their cap for passing consumer friendly laws. And the advertisers still get to be creative with their ads, get more creative value per second from their ads and provide a more customer friendly means of delivering the mandated fine print regarding their products and services.
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