Let Them Eat Cake!

I ordered pizza recently. It was a two for one deal. Naive as I am, I thought that meant two pizzas for the price of one. Since one pizza was $12, two pizzas for $12 seemed like a pretty good deal.

Imagine my surprise when two pizzas arrived at my door along with an $18 bill. When I asked why two pizzas weren’t $12 in total, I was told that “two for One” means two for “One” price. The one price? $18.

Delicious? Yes. Deceptive? Absolutely!

This leads me to a news story some time back, entitled “Buffet Bans Couple for Eating Too Much”.

Quoting the news source, “A couple on a low-carb diet were kicked out of the Chuck-A-Rama Restaurant after the manager said they’d eaten too much roast beef. Sui Amaama, who along with his wife, have been on the Atkins Diet for two weeks, was asked to leave after he went up to the buffet for his 12th slice of roast beef.”

Amaama’s wife Isabelle, claimed the two were under the impression the restaurant offered an all-you-can-eat buffet, a claim the restaurant’s District Manager, Jack Johanson denied.

Reading this story, I was horrified. After all, who in their right mind would eat at a restaurant named Chuck-A-Rama in the first place?! But I digress...

I was also reminded that on the great marketing highway there are times when misleading advertising claims and consumers meet head-on. The results can be devastating, often more so for the advertiser than the consumer.

Take our friends the Amaamas. While they suffered a few minutes of localized embarassment, good old Chuck-A-Rama made the national news, and not for their outstanding salad bar, which, as I understand, is actually quite good.

Contrary to what many advertisers think, advertising is not a ‘claims’ free-for-all. In fact, claims are very strictly regulated in Canada.

Advertising Standards Canada is responsible for upholding advertising standards as described in the Canadian Competition Act. Small volumes of these rules, each approximately the size of Sweden, have been developed for almost every category of product or service.

I remember having to refrain from using words like fresh or homemade when describing food in restaurant advertising. I was, however, permitted to use fresh and homemade to describe sporting goods.

Should advertisers fear the watchful eyes (and ears) of Advertising Standards Canada?

Possibly.

More importantly, advertisers should consider the most critical watchdog of all...the consumer.

Your business relies on customers. Neglecting them by making outlandish claims may make for compelling advertising, but may also result in hordes of unhappy people running around town criticizing your roast beef buffet.

To avoid being “Amaamanated”, deliver your message with impact but without suggesting or implying a promise you can’t deliver, whether you can argue your way out of it or not.

Call yourself a buffet, and you’d better be prepared to feed the next Amaama family that walks through the door. Otherwise, for the sake of a few slices of roast beef, you could be on the receiving end of thousands of dollars of negative publicity, and maybe even a fine for good measure.

For those of you interested in finding out more about Canadian advertising codes, visit www.adstandards.com.

For those interested in new business ventures, I hear Chuck-A-Rama has a few franchise opportunities opening up. Watch for their “Two for One” Prime Rib special, coming soon!