This sign has irked me for the past few years when­ever I drive past it. Finally I snapped a quick photo with my phone. (Click to enlarge, sorry about the poor image qual­ity, etc.) You may not know from the sign, but it’s a used car dealer. Of course. You expect a used car dealer to use an aster­isk, don’t you? It’s a cliché. This one uses a brack­eted “o.a.c.” for the same pur­pose. Here’s what we say (oh, but here’s what we actu­ally mean).

Despite the fac­tual dis­clo­sure, I file this under lying to your cus­tomers. Hook them with the head­line, mis­lead­ing as it is, and only give them the facts when you’ve got them reeled in. But why say some­thing and then com­pletely negate it in the fine print? It only proves you’re being disin­gen­u­ous. With the fine print, the sign in the photo says absolutely noth­ing about financ­ing… but it does say some­thing about the business.

*Do they think we’re that stu­pid? Here’s a chal­lenge: try adver­tis­ing with­out aster­isks. Tell the truth.