Coupons: Offers you can't refuse

Allow me to begin by saying that I don’t really like McDonald’s, or fast food in general. When it’s convenient, my other options are limited, and I have yet to add a coating of lard to my major arteries in a given week I’ll splurge on a Value Meal.

Yesterday was different. I had an overwhelming urge to go out of my way for a Big Mac.

You see, I found a series of coupons on my kitchen counter which I assume came out of this past Sunday’s paper. The coupons were all “buy one _____ get one free” from McDonald’s. For some reason, they caught my eye, and it just so happened that I had a limited window in which to eat lunch. Without thought, I clipped the coup for BOGO Big Mac, and went off to Mickey D’s.

Click image to enlarge

There had to be something about that coupon that made me think I was getting an unbelievable deal. I of course ordered the two sandwiches, along with a large fry and a tea. I then proceeded to take part in one of the favorite sedentary activities of Americans; eating the fast food in my car. Because if you’re going to develop Adult Onset Diabetes, what better way than to not even give your fat ass the time of day to sit down and eat.

As I said, I don’t even like fast food, but something about that coupon made me feel like I couldn’t pass up the deal (they expired on August 1st!).

I’m not your stereotypical coupon clipper, yet I was reeled in. This incident has led me to realize what an easy print ad opportunity coupons really are. Their purpose is twofold: remind you that a place exists (or tell you about it for the first time), and give you an incentive to go (a discount or something for free).

As an added bonus to the advertiser, if you include the “must surrender coupon at purchase” clause, you can easily track your rate of return. If you run a commercial instead, you offer no additional incentive to come into the establishment and you have no idea which customers are there in part due to the ad.

In the money-centric society in which we live, we can’t pass up a bargain, especially for extra calories. Oh, and that second free sandwich? I wasn’t even able to finish it. You win this round, McDonald’s.

Greased Lightbox

→←+-↻

Loading image

Click anywhere to cancel

Image unavailable

I did a real ad (!)

Sorry for a lack of updates over the past couple weeks.

Big news: I conceived/designed a real ad that will run in a Northeast Florida directory this fall.

Story:
The company I'm an intern for, Showcase Publishing, creates directories for chambers of commerce in various areas around the country. We don't charge the chambers for this service, our revenue comes strictly from ads in the directories and on online, which we sell to members of the chamber so as to "enhance" their listings in the directory.

We've been working on the book for St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce, and my job was pretty much to sort, record, and file all the "insertion orders," or requests for ads. On a whim, I asked our designer on the project if I could "do" an ad. He took one of the orders I had just handed him and handed it back to me, and said "here, go at it." I borrowed another designers computer for access to Adobe CS4, and less than an hour later I had a pretty good looking quarter page magazine ad for CartSmarts of St. Augustine, a new golf cart sales and service center.

I assumed the owner, who requested the ad, would ask for changes because in his request, he indicated that he had seen little to no return on investment in his other forays into advertising. Since his business was very young, I'm not sure how quickly he expected a large turnaround, but then again I also don't know how often Florida's octogenarians buy golf carts, and how much competition there is in the market. It might be as big as used car sales in the Northeast.

To my surprise, the owner approved the ad within days, asking no questions and requesting no changes. Either it was as good as I'd hoped, or the man is easily impressed. Either way, it feels really good to have someone willing to pay for your work. I'll post the ad here when I feel it's safe to do so.