On the Soapbox

Probably in response to the Domino's promotion in which you can buy three medium pizzas with unlimited toppings for $7 per pizza, Papa John's latest print ad features an identical deal: three medium pizzas with unlimited toppings for $20.99 total. Ah, the wonders of free-market competition... or so I thought. I hopped on over to Papa John's website, and on the order placement page, it lists the advertised special: "Three Medium. Unlimited Toppings. (Maximum five toppings per pizza) $20.99" Mmmkay, so right underneath the big prominent words "Unlimited Toppings" is fine print that defines unlimited as being limited to no more than five. Even more fishy is the fact that this fine print was conspicuously missing from their glossy print ad. Granted, it's still a good deal, but the advertising is clearly misleading: a limit of five is most definitely not "unlimited". There was other language that could have been used instead of "unlimited" that would not involve pulling a Clinton with definitions, and they could have at least added this fine print to the print ad instead of springing this detail when someone goes to order.

Yes, this is all very trivial, but it still pisses me off because one of the biggest reasons why free markets do not work like they do in textbooks is the problem of imperfect and asymmetric information, and this kind of deliberate attempt at information distortion that you see everywhere and every day is ruining the already soiled reputation of free markets.