I’ve been an advertising copywriter for almost 15 years now, and even with all that experience behind me, I never let myself believe I know all there is to know about the craft. Every time I get a little cocky and think there’s no new lesson to be learned, that’s when I usually fuck up in some fashion and hear about it.

And that’s where our little focus group/lesson came into play last week. A client had a one-day only offer, and it was up to me to present it, along with all the terms and conditions. The offer was valid Thursday only, from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. And that’s exactly how it should have been presented:

Offer valid Thursday, August 24 only, from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.

Instead, in a classic case of overthinking and trying to make the terms and conditions as reader friendly as possible, I came up with this gem:

Offer valid 12:00 A.M. Thursday through 12:00 A.M. Friday.

While that may be easier to understand for most people, a lot of other customers were left scratching their heads, and confused customers are never good for business. We heard about it via e-mail and telephone. “John” (not me) and JL in the comments had the “most right” answers.

Lesson learned.