two-price advertising

two-price advertising (uncountable)

1. A sales and marketing practice whereby the seller shows two prices, a normal price and a lower special discounted price, in order to attract customers by the apparent saving, but where the "normal" price is in fact a fiction, the goods having never actually been sold and/or offered at that price.

   2006: the advertising crackdown is concentrating on two-price advertising in catalogues such as “was $150, now $100” — Western Australian Department of Consumer and Employment Protection press release Jewellers targeted in swoop on advertisements, 10 May 2006