Yule season pitches play tricks on ears and eyes

It's the season to be jolly.  Yet, some advertisers, perhaps unconsciously, play tricks on our ears and eyes, leaving consumers --- including getting-tired-shopping Grumpy Editor --- even more befuddled.

Examples from current radio and print pitches:

CompUSA, in running radio commercials on a notebook computer, features a staccato female voice saying it costs "six ninety nine ninety nine."  That's probably the way it appears on the ad agency's script.  But without listeners visually seeing the cost, it sounds like the product carries a $69,999 price tag.

Better way is to work in a line that boasts:  Under $700.  Then, if necessary, go the "six ninety nine ninety nine" route.  Of course, the old-fashioned way is even better:  "Six hundred ninety nine dollars and ninety nine cents."  Confusion can be cut even more by knocking off the 99 cents and simply declaring:  "Six hundred ninety nine dollars."

Meanwhile, book seller Barnes & Noble, in full-page color (utilizing the seasonal green and red) ads, announces, "New Lower Prices for Members."  It lists percentage discounts on everything from hard covers to DVDs.  But one has to be in a "member program" to reap those deals.  Details are in its stores or Web site.

Going on-line, the searcher has to go through a B&N opening page maze to pinpoint the right button to click.  The slowly-growing-impatient-details-seeker then has to click through three more pages to see a buried line in small type that reads:  "You get all these member benefits for only $25 a year."

B&N can make potential patrons happier by simply indicating the annual fee in the ample space of the full-page ads.