The Fake Anchor Teardown: Spotting Manufactured 'Was' Prices
Objective: Given three synthetic pricing-page specimens, identify which anchors are legitimate and which are fabricated or misleading per the lesson's ethical-limits framework.
You're a brand marketing associate at Dollar Shave Club reviewing three draft promo landing pages before legal sign-off.
Apply the lesson's 'Where It Backfires / Ethical Limits' framework to find the real defects in each specimen, and don't get fooled by the distractors.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free, structures the teardown into a reviewable scorecard
The process
Specimens to review
Is the '$45, Now $9' anchor on this page legitimate or fabricated? What's the defect, if any?
Promo page headline: 'Razor Subscription Starter Kit -- Was $45, Now $9 First Box!' Small print at the bottom of the page: 'The Starter Kit has always launched new subscribers at $9; $45 reflects our optional a la carte razor price if purchased separately, never a Starter Kit price we have charged.'
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Is the '95% Recyclable' framing on this page a legitimate frame or a defect? What's the defect, if any?
Product page hero claim: '95% Recyclable Packaging!' The product ships in a box that is 90% single-use plastic clamshell and 5% recyclable cardboard insert, which is disclosed only in a materials PDF linked at the bottom of the page.
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Is this anchor legitimate or fabricated? Does it still have a defect worth flagging?
Comparison table: 'Executive Kit -- $45/mo (6-blade cartridges, travel case, shave butter)' shown above 'Starter Kit -- $9/mo, our most popular plan'. Both plans are real, currently sold SKUs, but neither is labeled as 'most popular' with a badge, only in body text.
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Final deliverable
A completed teardown scorecard for all three specimens: verdict, defect, severity, and the specific lesson rule each violates or upholds.
See a reference example
HelloFresh promo page teardown (excerpt) Specimen: 'Save $150 on your first box!' banner, small print shows the $150 figure is calculated against a hypothetical 6-box order nobody has actually purchased at full price. Verdict: Fabricated anchor. The $150 'savings' figure has no real transaction history behind it. Severity: Critical. Same category as a fake 'was' price, exposes the brand to deceptive-pricing enforcement.
Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Correctly separates the legitimate anchor (specimen 3) from the two fabricated ones
- Names the specific defect and severity for each specimen, not just 'good' or 'bad'
- Avoids being misled by at least 2 of the 3 distractors