Question by Jefe: Why is it allowed to use an asterisk without a footnote in an advertisement?
I´ve asked this time and time again and haven´t received a good answer. I´ve often seen in advertisements senteces like: “Answer the question and get a free* shirt”; where the asterisk means (or should mean!) that there is a footnote which explains the word accompanied by the asterisk. However, very often there is no footnote, which changes the usage of the asterisk to something like:
–we may be lying–
Why is this legal?
Best answer:
Answer by Judy
I worked as a temp secretary for many years.
And I saw this typed by other secretaries that were “not so smart” or not educated well.
They simply do not know that an asterisk needs to be attached to an explanation.
They knew to put it – but had no idea what it meant.
I always saw it as a dumb people thing.
But noticing in advertisements, I’m starting to think it’s done on purpose.
Perhaps their defense is also the “I’m an idiot” defense.
/
Add your own answer in the comments!
Asterisks draw attention, and that’s just what you want to do in an ad. That’s why they are often used (wrongly) to highlight ‘bullet points’.
Yes, an asterisk in text without the accompanying footnote means “There’s more to this than you’re reading here, and we won’t tell you what it is”. But people generally don’t take advertisements that seriously today anyway.
Notice how many ads on TV have disclaimers in tiny type at the bottom of the screen that appear for 20 milliseconds. The FCC (apparently) requires that they tell you this, but not that you should be able to read it. 8^) This is the same kind of thing.
Advertising has come a long way in 150 years. People today are very skeptical of ads, as they should be. So when you see an asterisk it’s almost as if they’re warning you of what you should be skeptical of already, and probably are.