Is there any truth in advertising? Do you honestly believe the advertisements that you are exposed to on a daily basis? Do 4 out of 5 dentists really choose Crest? Were 4 dentists paid, and the fifth just wanted more money? I'm just asking.

I received an unbelievable piece of advertisement today by email. Not only do I get about 5 credit card offers a week through snail mail, but I get just as many through email as well. Take a look at the snippet graphic below. Keep in mind I had to remove all company names/logos/branding to show this piece legally.

Above is the original version, as original as I could show it. So I read this short piece, and even though it is completely littered with superscript notes and disclaimers. Below is an example of what I automatically red flag.

So in short we have several "up to" lines, with "after you spend" verbiage, coupled with "no fee for first year", and that's displayed between an array of superscript references. I wish I could say it all sounded to good to be true, but they couldn't even evoke that emotion with all the junk references (which we all know are legalities and disclaimers), and deceptive benefits. But wait, there is a link there for "complete details." What you can not see here is that the "complete details" link takes you to a page with 946 words of legal disclaimers and restrictions on the offer. Wow, that does sound too good to be true...I suppose it does if you are a complete and total moron.

What you should also know that within the email, the 1,2,3 and 4 superscript marks take you to the bottom of the email where there are 450 words of restrictive legal speak written in a tiny light grey font. How tiny? Take a look.

The 4 references are then followed by another 380 words (in tiny grey print) of further disclaimers, including verbiage like, "offer only valid for new accounts", "18.25% APR", and stuff like the buddy pass is available on tickets over $300, and the buddy pass is only a discount of 50% off original ticket price.

Wow, I'm excited, are you? I should call all my friends and tell them about this great offer, right?! No, instead I feel that the advertisement is so poor that I will spend precious time to talk about how ridiculous it is. The more I think about it, they must think the thousands of recipients who receive these offers are all in a dead lock tie for the dumbest person on earth.

Is this the future (or present) of advertising? Purposeful deception? Ludicrous restrictions? Enough legal garb that no non-lawyer could possibly make sense of it all? I don't know what they call normal, but an 18.25% APR, $85 dollar annual fees, and mandatory spending of $750 to even receive any "rewards" sounds more like aggressive debt promotion to me. What part of that sounds like a good deal? And the "buddy pass"?!?! One person must buy a round trip domestic fare for over $300 and their "buddy" can then receive a 50% discount on their regularly priced fare, but will also be responsible to pay the taxes, fees and charges in association with use of the "buddy pass". Again, wow.... what a deal.

But what makes me sad, and believe you me, I'm sad... is that they wouldn't do this if it didn't work. Advertisements like this should make people laugh, not sign up.