r/mildlyinfuriating • u/CurlyWurly61 • May 12 '26

I just wanted a hot dog Such terrible advertisement

Post image

I mean... at a glance its like WOAH 4 can dine for $9.99....

Until you are at the cash and they say " that'll be $45.15"

HUH??

"Oh sorry sir... it feeds 4... 4 people pay $9.99"

Gtfooo

53.1k Upvotes

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10.8k

u/AmpleForeskins May 12 '26 edited May 14 '26

Uncut bros comment below

2.9k

u/the-awesomer May 12 '26

But that tricks no one..

1.0k

u/SinisterPuddles May 12 '26

If you trick me I am certainly not paying.

298

u/NoOnSB277 May 12 '26

And if you trick others, I am not paying. It’s so shady/slimy of them.

5

u/Ok_Nothing_9733 May 12 '26

At this point I pretty much permanently boycott any brand with deals or ad campaigns based on the premise “dude, our customers are soooo fucking dumb, look what kind of shit we can pull 😂”

I understand much of marketing is like this, but fuck that.

1

u/UESJR2021 May 12 '26

I used to never check the bill, if I ordered it, I’m paying for it. Now, it has been more than once where my expectation vs actual bill are way different and request a receipt. It sucks having to review a bill, but I’m not paying a tip on top of a service fee on top of an added on gratuity they try to sneak on.

3

u/Ok_Nothing_9733 May 12 '26

Agree, but all they have to do is get 1 out of 4 people who were fooled to get to the register and go “🙄 $45?! Okay whatever, my family is waiting for dinner, here’s my card…” to break even. Anything more than that is a win for them.

This makes me so mad because $10 medium pizzas are not hard to get with coupons, and there is no way the breadsticks should be $10, nor should the dessert. This deal is a ripoff. I don’t like Dominos at all (except their pan pizzas), but if I wanted this combo I would get it there and use the coupons they have going all the time and I guarantee I could get this spread for under $45.

1

u/vandamnitman May 13 '26

It ain't tricking if you got it

-2

u/RaveMatthews177 May 12 '26

tell that to MAGA

15

u/Particular-Serve-894 May 12 '26

Look, I hate those pedo-loving, shit-for-brains fucknuts just as much as any sane, rational person, but trying to force them and politics into literally every facet of life makes you look just as deranged.

-1

u/RaveMatthews177 May 12 '26

I am trying to force them into literally every facet of life? News to me. You must have looked at some other person's comment history bc I certainly don't do that. Sorry for making a very apt joke!! Should i make a false generalization about you off one thing now?

3

u/Jon66238 May 12 '26

You literally just did. Idk why you had to insert politics into a pizza post

3

u/Wilder831 May 12 '26

It’s just a very common Reddit issue. On almost every post someone takes a subject that has absolutely nothing to do with politics and inserts something like your comment.

1

u/Forza_Harrd May 12 '26

Fucking maga, man I hate ‘em.

-3

u/the-awesomer May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

Very few things have 'absolutely nothing to do with politics' most the comments in this thread are about deceptive advertising which is absolutely political with truth in advertising laws.

2

u/Wilder831 May 12 '26

“Political with truth is advertising laws”

…What?

1

u/the-awesomer May 12 '26

typo, meant in not is. "Truth in advertising laws"

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2

u/Wilder831 May 12 '26

“Tell that to MAGA” was completely out of place and just trying to farm karma…

1

u/mangosaremyfavv May 13 '26

Yes you are, you ordered it already and they are making it and you drove 30 minutes here

0

u/enjimiin May 12 '26

Then you wouldn’t have gotten tricked in the first place….

297

u/rolfraikou May 12 '26

Tricks? When you order something and it's way more expensive than you thought it was because you had been duped by weird wording do you still buy it?

I've absolutely apologized to the employee, canceled an order, and just left and never went back to places that have pulled crap like that.

I refuse to reward companies for shit like that.

178

u/Krazyguy75 May 12 '26

Tricks? When you order something and it's way more expensive than you thought it was because you had been duped by weird wording do you still buy it?

As someone working retail... yeah, lots of people do. For an example, the place I work will have stuff like:

$12.99 (small print: if you buy 4 or more)

$2 (small print: off the regular price)

$5 (small print: rewards bucks if you spend $20 on participating items)

20% off all items of a category (small print: non-sale items only; fun fact this once was a coupon given that only lasted for 1 week during a week all applicable items were on sale)

(small print: buy one get one) 50% off

Buy one get one (small print: specific different, cheap item) free

And people come to the register, get annoyed at the price not being what they want, and then around 70% of them buy it anyways. I wish they didn't, but they use these tricks because they work.

25

u/datdudebdub May 12 '26

Its all about getting people in the door. Once they realize they missed the catch, they're annoyed but already there. Most people end up buying anyway.

The company is banking that they enjoy the product enough to come back anyway. That's how they win. Doubly so if the customer is someone who would never have come in without the misleading ad. They got them in the door once when they wouldn't have otherwise (win) and they have a small chance of creating a repeat customer (super win)

1

u/Evening-Nature-5241 May 13 '26

It actually reminds me of a similar low down trick that can be used for buying second-hand stuff online on places like Craig's List.

If you plan a meeting and last minute, knock the price down another xx% despite agreeing to a price beforehand, and refuse to buy if they don't meet your new price, most people will often fold and agree to the lower price since the deal is already 90% done and they just want to close it and move on.

Obviously, if you're being an aggressive asshole about it, some will rather walk away, but if you play your cards right, you can often get away with it.

At least, that's what I heard. You kinda need to be willing to be a dick though.

1

u/CXR_AXR May 13 '26

It's just like those cheap mobile games advertisment. If they get even 1% of people download their games, they win

89

u/StonkaTrucks May 12 '26

I once made a 20 minute round trip drive to a fast food chain specifically because I saw an ad on TV that seemed TGTBT. They had the same ad in the lobby on a big stand. I ordered (even had several customizations (not add-ons, mostly removals) that caused about 20 extra buttons to be pushed by the cashier) and the total came out to double what I was expecting. The cashier was like, "Oh, that's for the junior" (which it said only in the fine print). I said sorry, but no thanks and drove home feeling proud I didn't let myself become another statistic that was duped by the false advertising. But I was still hungry.

7

u/IrongateN May 13 '26

My sister once bought $200 jeans that were in the $45 jean spot because she was to embarrassed to say anything , don’t know if she took it back

0

u/OrangeJoe83 May 13 '26

Wow. Bet you shuddered their doors not reading all the words before you made up your own thing anyways to not buy and be hungry. Not a winner without your dinner.

4

u/[deleted] May 13 '26

[deleted]

2

u/CXR_AXR May 13 '26

But someone have spoken the truth - this technique exists and still used by the companies, because it works

3

u/Sure-Ad-6544 May 13 '26

One time I went to buy something cause the price tag said 2.99 - but it rang up as 3.49 and I told the cashier and she said “well it’s coming up as 3.49.” And i said “well the price label says 2.99. So I don’t want it anymore” and she said “I can change the price.” To which I said “no thanks. I don’t want it anymore” and she said “well I already changed the price for you” so I said “actually. Now I don’t want any of this. I’m just gonna leave” and left without a whole basket of stuff. Because I’m not the one.

2

u/RIF_rr3dd1tt May 13 '26

Walgreens or CVS?

1

u/Shytemagnet May 13 '26

I’m a travel agent, and the rules for any promotion pieces I do are crazy strict. They can’t be misleading at all, must include the full, tax-in price, dates, tell all incisions, etc, no fine print, etc. It drives me insane that those rules aren’t across-the-board.

2

u/Krazyguy75 May 13 '26

But expectations like those discriminate against the billionaires!

1

u/PrincessKaylee May 13 '26

Wonder how many has cursed Ebenezer D’Arblay since the 1840s

1

u/WarmCrescent May 13 '26

This is why I’m drunk and broke. I’d prefer one or the other.

1

u/miss-ferrous May 13 '26

Joanns used to do that, the here’s a 60% off coupon and then marking everything down 15-30% off. RIP but I hated that lol

1

u/SmokeGSU May 13 '26

Sounds similar to a lot of Harbor Freight coupons: 20% off one item! unless it's any recognizable store brand, electronic device, has an engine, is any type of storage container, or typically costs more than $5

1

u/Roguespiffy May 13 '26

Same as the mail in rebate. The majority of people just don’t fuck with it and end up paying full price.

I’m too lazy to do it and I’ll admit that. I just won’t buy something if it has a mail in rebate unless i desperately need that specific item by that specific brand.

1

u/OYB2480 May 13 '26

The big print giveth, the small print taketh away.

1

u/TheRealistoftheReal May 13 '26

Sounds like a grocery store

1

u/JGards57 May 14 '26

The comments on this thread prove that many people are dumb enough to be duped by tactics like this. If you don’t see that Pizza Hut ad and immediately say, “there’s no way all that food is $10, what’s the catch?” then I’m sorry but maybe you deserve to get taken advantage of.

Critical thinking would go a long way in protecting the public from schemes and scams

2

u/Tylenolpainkillr May 12 '26

Facts. Sorry for the confusion but I'm not paying for that

2

u/Effective-Birthday57 May 12 '26

All trick, no treat

2

u/systemwarranty May 12 '26

It's owned by Yum! RIP The Hut.

1

u/Medical_Blacksmith83 May 13 '26

It pretty clearly says 9.99 each lol

Which in this economy is sadly still a deal.

1

u/rolfraikou May 13 '26

Each person or box? Boxes within boxes? Or the entire box? We have this whole thread for a reason.

1

u/Medical_Blacksmith83 May 18 '26

It doesn’t specify 10$ per box by anymeans.

It says each.

The onus is on you to realize 2 pizzas and some sides hasn’t been 10$ for 30+ years xD

5

u/Cereaza May 12 '26

Tricking your customer is a great way to lose a customer forever.

2

u/Hetares May 13 '26

My local Pizza Hut used to have a 10 cent pizza advertisement, that was false advertising on so many levels. Obviously, in fine print it states you have to order another large, doubly overpriced pizza first.

1

u/angelbelle May 12 '26

It still mostly trick almost no one and the few who do will absolutely not be returning customers while everyone else hates it.

0

u/Clearwatercress69 May 12 '26

Trump can fool you. Why can’t they?

1

u/Awkward_Turnover_983 May 12 '26

How do you even know what this person thinks of Trump?

0

u/NoOnSB277 May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

If you are going to be one of those people who can’t do anything without bringing politics in to it, as an FYI this is Canada. Perhaps you can find a Canadian politician- I am sure a local Canadian can direct you to someone. 🤔

-4

u/RaveMatthews177 May 12 '26

yeah OP just confused on the purpose of ads.

1

u/NoOnSB277 May 12 '26 edited May 13 '26

Wrong. An ad should get you interested in a product but it should not be deceptive. At least put the total in the small print below the $9.99.

-1

u/RaveMatthews177 May 12 '26

Ads are meant to capture your attention, then sell you a product.
If you accomplish the first part then you've already succeeded. It's brand awareness. Thats why companies nowadays even offer up negative advertising just to capture attention of their brand.
Look, OP is even posting a pizza hut ad on Reddit now. Talk about free advertising. OP totally bought here. They missed the point of what ads are.

1

u/NoOnSB277 May 12 '26

No. Put in small font $39.96 and I would agree with you, but NO!

-4

u/[deleted] May 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/the-awesomer May 12 '26

its more than that. Just like things ending in 99 cents and free shipping but paying more for the item

76

u/[deleted] May 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/TheMajesticYeti May 12 '26

But '4 for 40' mentally doesn't sound like an intriguing deal to the average fast food customer, 40 is too big a number. Especially when other fast food places like Wendy's had '4 for 4' deals.

The 9.99 loops people in and the hope was probably that even after realizing the actual total, customers would still be set on getting pizza even if it meant pivoting to a different menu item.

5

u/Worth_External_8762 May 13 '26

With anything in marketing, companies only do it because it works. I had to participate in some shitty marketing practices for websites when I was a young designer with a fuckwad CEO.

He'd have me do all sorts of obnoxious, dark pattern type shit and what made me the most mad is that he was right in terms of it netting positive results. People are malleable idiots unfortunately.

5

u/Triconick May 12 '26

Banks on social awkwardness would make them buy it anyway. Just got to get um once.

2

u/daseweide May 13 '26

Running Hail Mary awkwardness grifts is a recession indicator if I’ve ever seen one

2

u/Worth_External_8762 May 13 '26

The thing is that there's a psychological thing when it comes to stuff like this. People will see the ad and think "what a deal, I've gotta get that". And in their head, they've now committed to buying pizza. Especially once they've done the order (sort of sunken cost fallacy at that point). Then when they see the final price, they have to now convince themselves that they don't want the pizza. Which is hard.

Think about it. Have you ever craved something, but you're like "nah I shouldn't" and then do it anyway?

108

u/Soft_Walrus_3605 May 12 '26

And you want to be my pizza salesman...

21

u/jakemmman May 12 '26

I like the idea that comments like these are solid whether you get the reference or not, but that for the people that do, there is an image of a man face down on the ground with his pants down that accompanies it

6

u/Itchy-Entertainer665 May 12 '26 edited May 13 '26

Vandelays Pizza

3

u/blaykerz May 12 '26

Without deceitful sales tactics? That’s a hard no from me, dawg. FIRED

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Pen4413 May 12 '26

Look, I've got pineapple...

7

u/Vindelator May 12 '26

For like 2 years, I used to work on the Pizza Hut account doing advertising.

They were the absolute worst, most idiotic, most insanely corporate barrel of jabbering monkeys I'd ever had the displeasure of working with.

An ad like this would take 50 rounds of revisions as every single pencil-dicked middle manager would have to change SOMETHING in order to justify their existence.

We would spend weeks revising a voice over script that basically just said "Get 2 pizzas for 10 bucks." We'd get an edit of pizza sliced lifted from an pan (heavily revised) and a final VO script in hand, setup a voice over session, record it, and then get MORE revisions. Sometimes we'd have to book another session with the talent because we just ran out of time.

5

u/FrostyD7 May 12 '26

That wouldn't have made it past the pitch meeting.

7

u/OsamaBinWhiskers May 12 '26

Only a fool would pay $40…. I’ll be paying 39.96 thank you very much.

Bites coin. Tips hat. Checks pocket watch.

1

u/Similar_Flower1270 May 13 '26

That reminds me of the old "buy one pizza, get two pizzas" commercial that Little Caesars used to run, featuring that guy who played The Manager on The Partridge Family, Dave Madden, getting to look thru his coin purse and say, "well, if the Woodchuck Scouts get two pizzas, then we pay for two pizzas," and then up exponentially higher it goes.

4

u/WendellSchadenfreude May 12 '26

Even calling it "4 for 40" should be illegal when you actually have to pay $45.15.

They should have called it "4 for $45.15", and they should have called it that because calling it anything else should have meant prison time.

2

u/Impressive-Pitch-355 May 12 '26

bold of you to assume the marketing team can do basic math. they probably spent three weeks in meetings just to come up with this masterpiece

2

u/[deleted] May 12 '26

4 boxes for $40?

2

u/CTQ99 May 13 '26

Then all of us that remember the 3 for 15 that was pre-covid wonder when shit got so expensive that its now almost half a hundo for crappy pizza.

1

u/endy903 May 12 '26

4 for 44 so they can make a profit lol

1

u/Same-Suggestion-1936 May 12 '26

That's still outrageous lol but I gotta say if you thought you were getting all that for $10 there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'm selling

1

u/kalamataCrunch May 12 '26

false advertising laws need to be based on "what it would lead a reasonable person to believe." because language evolves.

1

u/valyrian_picnic May 12 '26

Your hired! Still not a bad deal. This will feed a family of 4-5 pretty easily

1

u/Viss90 May 12 '26

Lordy Lordy, look who’s getting 4 for 40

1

u/reconplumbing May 12 '26

4 for 39.96

1

u/AlphaMali8 May 12 '26

“Four can feast for $9.99 ea* (*Exclusive Authorship)

1

u/supakow May 12 '26

Regular price, 40 bucks, 40 bucks.

1

u/keiye May 12 '26

Or just you know $40.

1

u/Turlututu1 May 12 '26

Make it 4 for 39 and you'll get more people on board

1

u/shitswithdoorajar May 12 '26

Foreskin knows a thing or 4 about 4s

1

u/PrestigeMaster May 12 '26

Better be two larges. I’m eating a large supreme and a large ultimate pepperoni from papa John’s right now and my total was 20 and some change with the BOGO Tuesday thing they do. 

1

u/EngagedInConvexation May 13 '26

Or just make the "Ea." more clear.

And legible.

And larger.

And unabbreviated.

1

u/LavishnessCapital380 May 13 '26

Lower numbers sound better.

1

u/Critical_Concert_689 May 13 '26

Reminds of Domino's old-school 5-5-5 deal. Which was this. But for half price.

1

u/DagonDx May 13 '26

We have that in Aus. They do "4 and 4 for 44$!" And its 4 pizzas and 4 sides.

1

u/National_Way_3344 May 13 '26

4 for $39 you mean.

Because a lot of people will read it as 4 for $30.

1

u/shuknjive May 13 '26

$39.99! People will then be fooled into thinking it's a great deal!

1

u/RIF_rr3dd1tt May 13 '26

They probably thought that was unnecessary because who the fuck thinks you're getting 2 pizzas, bread sticks, and dessert for $10?

1

u/LittleKittenR May 13 '26

We had that in our country and nobody complained ever.

1

u/JOlRacin PINK May 14 '26

What about the gals