Marketing Communications & Strategy

When headlines giveth

and disclaimers taketh away...

(The Gospel According to Jack)

In the old days we used to call it “Ultra Rubber Condensed.” That’s where you put your disclaimer, caveats, or restrictions in tiny type, shrink it to unreadable size, and try to hide it where it won’t be noticed. Copy set in URC type is often used to appease gutless attorneys, placate CEO’s who’s idea of marketing is based on abject fear, or to comply with “Big Brother” regs designed to protect us all.

Radio and TV advertisers can’t get away with this sort of chicanery. They can’t whisper their warnings or conditions. Best they can do is deliver the scary stuff with a very pleasant voice, or babble it so quickly it’s hard to follow.

The typical print approach to disclaimers is the deadly asterisk. The damn thing breaks your readers’ reading pattern, and unlike a P.S. that enforces your message, it calls attention to the negative stuff. And you haven’t even had a chance to work your word magic.

To compound the felony (it may be responsible for the death of your message), it can make you look sneaky when you’re not really the sneaky type. Transparency, which is a nice word for honesty, is the best policy.

If you have something important to say, even if you don’t really want to say it, don’t try to make believe it’s not important. Despite constant exhortations to “read the fine print,” often it’s only the anal retentive who comply. Most folks don’t think you’re trying to screw them. So why emphasize the takeaway?

Copy guru Herschell Gordon Lewis, in the July issue of “Direct Marketing Magazine says using and asterisk to qualify something you’ve presented as an unconditional claim is cheating. Amen.

His suggestion: use parentheses immediately following the claim you want to deny. This he points out, will play down the disclaimer rather than emphasize it.

You can read Herschell’s entire column at www.directmag.com. Go ye there and your mind will prosper.