Advertising's goal, more often than not, is to get the consumers to buy the product the ad is selling. The market is extremely competitive and some companies will go to whatever lengths necessary to reel customers in. Some companies will even resort to misleading and deceiving their customers. However, they try to cover their backs by putting the information that would keep you from buying the product in the fine print. That being said, if an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. You should always read the fine print before committing to a product, or you may end up like many of the customers at DirecTV.
DirecTV was promoting the "popular 12 month discount package" which advertises a "12 month plan for as little as $19.95" per month. This sounds like a great deal to the unassuming customer viewing this ad. However, they were unaware of what came along with this 12 month discount package. DirecTV does not make it clear that a 2 year contract is required if you want to get the discount package. After the first year, the prices jump from $19.95 a month to a much higher price. The prices go up from anywhere between $25 and $45 a month. Once the customer finds out how much their discount package is costing them, they can cancel their contract... for $480. The high price for the cancelation fee almost ensures that the customers will stick to the contract since the fee may very well be around the same price they would pay originally. The customers also have to cancel "free premium channels like HBO and Showtime that they get during the first 3 months of the package". If they don't cancel in time, they are automatically charged for these channels.
"DirecTV is the largest satellite television provider in the country" with over 20 million subscribers. How ethically sound is it for them do mislead and deceive their millions of customers into buying a product they didn't know they were buying? DirecTV tries to argue that the ads "sometimes" includes a disclaimer in the fine print, but "in other cases it was obscured by texts and pictures". So depending on which ad you saw, you might get some fine print that includes the details of the purchase. This is downright dirty marketing.
The bottom line is that DirecTV tricked their customers, causing them to buy a seemingly great product that would unknowingly cost them way more than they perceived. These customers were uninformed, partly due to the vague ad. This violates many ethical codes and will most likely result in the loss of many loyal customers. But on the other hand, customers should be more observant. They should research the product they are buying instead of going off of what they hear and see in a short 30 second ad. Consumers, put more thought into your purchases, and ALWAYS read the fine print.
Articles Cited:
(http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/11/news/companies/directv-false-advertising/index.html)
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