Advertisement Technicalities

Avoiding advertisements is difficult to impossible in the modern world, so I like to make a game of finding reasons to not be convinced by ads.

I just heard an Old Navy ad: the "entire store is on sale for up to 50% off." The "up to 50% off" is the first red flag that this actually isn't a good deal. It could be that one rack of polos is 50% off and the rest of the store could have measly 5% or 10% discounts, and the ad would still be technically correct (the best kind of correct).

However, there was also a disclaimer at the end of the ad that gift cards and Fruit-of-the-Looms are not included in the deal.

en·tire

ənˈtī(ə)r/

     adjective
     1. with no part left out; whole.

This ad, then, clearly breaks the Standards of Practice set in place by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, specifically Creative Code 1.a.

I'm not, of course, going to actually do anything about this breach of standard, but Old Navy will not be receiving my customership for a while, a gesture made insignificant by the fact that I don't actually know where any Old Navies are in Atlanta.