No this isn’t about building a better mouse trap but it is about catching a rat, advertising rats.  A new website developed by Edgar Dworsky, exposes the truth behind the little asterisk that shows up on an ever increasing percentage of ads now a days.  I love the sites name, mouseprint.org as it describes the size of the print being used by so many unscrupulous advertisers.

Here is a description of the site:

“mouse print” is the fine print in advertising, in a contract, or on a product label, often buried out of easy sight. In the worst cases, the mouse print changes the meaning of, or contradicts the primary claims or promises being made. Sometimes, the catch is not even disclosed.

The website, MousePrint.org, literally turns advertising on its head by focusing on an ad’s asterisked fine print footnote rather than the headline. The goal is to help educate the public about the catches or “gotchas” in disclaimers, and to encourage advertisers to abandon the motto, “the big print giveth, and the little print taketh away.”

MousePrint.org, like its sister sites, Consumer World and MrConsumer, are consumer education sites produced by consumer advocate, Edgar Dworsky.

Contact: edgar(at symbol)mouseprint.org