Why don't we pay attention to the asterisk? Sometimes I see the asterisk and I don't see the footnote. I ask the sales person. They put on a dumbfounded face. I point to the asterisk. It's almost as if they are seeing it for the first time. I'm not sure if they are putting on a show or never really paid enough attention to the very thing they are trying to sell me. It's a wide range of gray area flanked by two extremes: pure evil and pure idiocy. Somewhere in the middle is moral laziness.
*Moral laziness is not just a character flaw that the salesperson has, but also that I have. Who wants to read the paragraph long legalese in small type that relates to whatever magic word followed by an asterisk that initially caught my attention that captivated me to walk into the store.
BS: ATT in the latter part of the last decade actually did market research to figure out how to design an envelope and a notice that consumers would discard! They actually sent out samples to people. They did a study. They found that certain phrases or bolding certain words would convince people that they didn’t have to read the notice that was sent, so they’d throw it in the trash. The act of throwing it in the trash was essentially legal consent to letting ATT remove consumers’ rights to sue them! So it was a very momentous event for the consumer to discard your right to file a lawsuit against ATT.
TG: So in order to retain the right to file a lawsuit, you had to actually read it, sign it, and return it.
BS: You had to read it and object to it – and, of course, understand it! But at the very top of the notice it said, “You do not have to do anything.” Of course, everyone loves to hear that, so they threw the note out.
TG: So that particular contract was voided by a court.
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