A water park in Germany emailed me. The subject line said “Rulantica: almost 15% discount”.
I’ve been annoyed by it for ages. Almost? Almost what? Why?
It looks like a typo. It looks like small print made it to the subject line. Did the product team only permit 14.3% and the promotions team had to work with that? Nobody wanted to say “a modest saving”. Somebody has to make the number sound worth opening the email for.
Perhaps this is what happened? We’ve all been there when the product and finance team come in with an offer they’re beaming with from ear to ear but the terms and the caveats make the radio commercial unfeasible where the ad is 70% Ts & Cs. Let’s assume it was 14.3%. Rounding down to 14% feels random. Rounding up to 15% is a lie. So you pick the third door. “Almost 15%”. Boom. It sounds bigger than 14 and it’s still true.
The funny thing is it works. “Almost” makes you do the sum backwards. But I opened it. I’ve been thinking about it since. Which is annoying.
