The Best Robe You'll Never Buy

We have a weekend subscription to the LA Times: every Thursday through Sunday we get the paper on our doorstep. The hefty Sunday paper is always chock full of extras I'll never peruse-- mostly store ads and coupons. Lately, though, I've been taking to carefully riffling through the coupon sections, because I've come across some really good ones, clipped them, and been able to save some serious money with them.

This past Sunday was no exception. I perused the paper as I sat at the dining table, eating my breakfast. No coupons of interest. Then I came across this one. I did a double-take, wondering if I was reading it correctly. You'll have to take a look for yourself-- yes, it was such a bizarre thing to find that I clipped it and scanned it (be sure to click on the pic for a larger image, and all the minute details):



I... am really not sure what to make of it! Clearly it was a joke-- perhaps it was printed too early for April Fool's Day? Or maybe it's right on time, since you don't normally find coupon clippers in the Thursday paper (April 1 is this Thursday). At first I thought it might be a very clever ad, and the *real* ad would be hidden somewhere in there. But try as I might, I could not find anything supporting this idea.

It looks really well done-- like a real ad, and anyone not paying close attention would've just mistaken it for another one of those "As Seen on TV" ads. The disclaimers become glaring only once you take a closer look. And pre-filling in the order form? Why do I get the feeling that it's an idiot-proof measure, to keep people who fail to see all those "not real" disclaimers from trying to submit an order form anyway? Why do I somehow suspect that this sort of ad has run before, people fell for it, and now they have their own version of "Warning: do not use hair dryer in the shower" label on it?

So... I still have no idea what it's supposed to mean. One thing's for certain: someone obviously had too much time on their hands!