As I was writing up the current installment of “Deals of the Week,” I spotted something interesting in the new Dominick’s flyer. Grab your ad and follow along with me if you’d like, or check out the online version.
Any time I’m putting deals together, I scour my ads for anything that might be of relevance to coupon shoppers for a sale — for example, sometimes the fine print in an ad will reference a website that has printable coupons for the products shown in the ad. And when I looked at the text for the “Buy 3, Save $3” deal on the back page of the new Dominick’s flyer, I saw a yellow line of text at the bottom of the green box:
It read, “For recipes and product info visit us at www.savorthesavings.957thewolf.com”
Thinking perhaps I’d find some coupons there for the products in the sale, I typed the address in. Of course, that address doesn’t work in a web browser because it has two third-level domains (you can’t put a “www” in front of another third-level domain – guess the Dominick’s ad copy person wasn’t aware of this.) Okay… dropped the “www” and browsed to savorthesavings.957thewolf.com.
Here’s what opened in the browser:
Now, I thought, “COOL! They’re giving away a $50 store gift card every day through November 5th!” I couldn’t wait to blog about this for you guys, because with the URL screwed up in the ad, it seemed unlikely that too many people would successfully enter this giveaway, and maybe some of my readers would be able to win some gift cards!
I clicked the “Contest Rules” button to see if there was any additional information I could post about the giveaway, and the terms of the contest popped up at this link.
And this is what the rules said:
Who Can Enter
1. Must be legal residents of the State(s) of California in the following counties: San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Napa, and Marin; 18 years of age or older on the date of entry. Station reserves the right to examine identification and may reasonably choose to accept or deny awarding the prize based on the identification presented.
Okay, this is seriously screwed up.
1. Dominick’s posts a website URL in their weekly flyer accompanying the “Buy 3, Save $3” sale.
2. The URL’s syntax is incorrect and won’t actually take anyone to a website unless the “www” is dropped from it.
3. Once the website loads, it features the same “Buy 3, Save $3” artwork, graphics, and products shown in the Dominick’s ad. The site invites visitors to win a $50 store gift card, with one card being given away every day from now through November 5th.
4. Users can register for this contest (again, assuming these are Chicagoland Dominick’s shoppers who are being directed to this site) but unless they click the “Contest Rules” button, they will never know that it is actually only open to California residents.
5. The gift card contest is evidently also being co-promoted by 95.7 “The Wolf” Radio – “Country for the Bay Area” in California.
Did I miss anything? How did this end up in this week’s Dominick’s ad? And, am I the only one who noticed it?
armymom says
..come from? i honestly don’t know what these people think they are doing ..advertising THEIR products here!!!
chickie says
I noticed the URL, but never typed it in, and I’m glad that I didn’t. The 957wolf part reminded me of a radio station and I turned to my husband and asked if there was a new station at 95.7… Sure enough it is…just in California. I’d love to see what Dominick’s has to say about this one!
Coupon Maven says
It is in the ad again this week! The same weird radio URL for a California contest we can’t enter. Bizarre.
This week, they’ve added recipes and a message on the site to “Stock up for the Baseball Series.”