Truth in Advertising?

One rule in marketing is to always inflate the value of free offers. I was surprised to see this offer for a free DVD download with a value of only $5.99. Either this is unusual marketing honesty or the download is really crappy.

Wouldn't you think they would make the value $6 instead of $5.99 when they are giving it to you for free? The only time you want to use the $x.99 trick is when you want the cost to appear to be less.

Special Message

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a "special message" e-mail from my IP phone provider (8x8). It was a lovely red envelope with a "Click here to open" note on the flap. Here is what I saw when I moused over the "Click Here"link:

Check out that URL! I don't know what sort of deranged masochist would want to risk clicking on that thing. It even has the word "track" right at the end of that top line. If they really wanted to send me something special, why couldn't they just include it in the spam e-mail without tracking me all the way back to their website?