A creator holds the bottle up to the camera and says the line the brand wrote for her: "this was $89, and for Black Friday it's $39". The brand set the $89 price on October 14, sold four units at it, and dropped it to $49 for the rest of the month before the sale. In the United States the sentence she just said is governed by a text older than the internet, the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing at 16 CFR part 233, which say that a former price provides a legitimate basis for a price comparison if it is the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time, and that a "reduced" price advertised against a fictitious former price is, in reality, probably just the seller's regular price.
How to plan creative for a discount weekend, which hooks work and which formats travel, is the subject the other country cocoons treat, and the market guide describes what an American brand buys creator video for. This guide is about the American layer under a Black Friday creator video: which claims the Guides name, what each of them requires the brand to have behind it, and how a brief keeps a creator from saying a number the brand cannot defend.
The former price, in the words of the Guides
What makes a former price real
The Guides open with one of the most commonly used forms of bargain advertising, a reduction from the advertiser's own former price. The former price is a legitimate basis for the comparison when it is the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time. It is a false bargain when the former price is fictitious, the Guides' example being an artificial, inflated price established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction. The Guides add that a former price is not necessarily fictitious merely because no sales at it were made, but that the advertiser should be especially careful, in such a case, that the price was one at which the product was openly and actively offered for sale, for a reasonably substantial period of time, in the recent, regular course of business, honestly and in good faith.
The pen at $10
The Guides carry their own example, and it reads like a Black Friday plan. A retailer of Brand X fountain pens pays $5 each and sells at $7.50. To offer an unusual bargain, he prices the pen at $10, expects to sell none or very few at that price, keeps it there for a few days, then cuts the price to its usual $7.50 and advertises "Terrific Bargain: X Pens, Were $10, Now Only $7.50!". The Guides call this obviously a false claim. The creator's "$89, now $39" is that pen when the $89 lived for a few days in October, whereas the same sentence over an $89 price that ran from spring to November is the bargain the Guides describe as a true one.
"Formerly sold at" says more than "was"
The Guides draw one further line inside the former price. The advertiser should scrupulously avoid any implication that a former price is a selling price rather than an asking price, their example being the words "Formerly sold at $______", unless substantial sales at that price were actually made. A creator who says "people were paying $89 for this last month" has made the selling-price claim; a creator who says "it was listed at $89" has made the asking-price claim, and the brief decides which sentence the brand can back with its own sales record.
| What the creator says on camera | The section of the Guides it answers to | What the brand has to hold |
|---|---|---|
| "Was $89, now $39" | 233.1, former price comparisons | The dates and the channels at which $89 was openly offered, for a reasonably substantial period, in the recent, regular course of business |
| "People paid $89 for this" | 233.1(b), a selling price rather than an asking price | Substantial sales at $89 |
| "Everyone else sells this for $120" | 233.2, retail price comparisons in the trade area | Evidence that substantial sales are made at about $120 in the area |
| "Retails at $99, yours for $59" | 233.3, manufacturer's list or suggested price | Evidence that the list price corresponds to substantial sales; otherwise the reduction may mislead |
| "Buy one, get one free" or "50% off" | 233.4, bargain offers based on the purchase of other merchandise | All the terms and conditions disclosed; no increase in the regular price, no reduction in quantity or quality of the article the customer must buy |
| "Only this weekend", "wholesale price", "factory price" | 233.5, miscellaneous comparisons | A limit that is real; a wholesale price that is the wholesale price, a factory price that is the price paid by those who buy directly from the manufacturer; for seconds, the disclosure that the higher price is the price of the perfect article |
The list price, the competitor's price and the free gift
The Guides treat three other sentences a Black Friday video reaches for. A comparison with the prices charged by others in the advertiser's trade area is allowed when the higher price is based upon fact, and the advertiser should be reasonably certain it does not appreciably exceed the price at which substantial sales of the article are being made in the area. A reduction from a manufacturer's list or suggested retail price is a bargain in the public's mind, the Guides say, because many people believe the list price is the price at which an article is generally sold; to the extent list prices do not correspond to prices at which a substantial number of sales are made, the advertisement of a reduction may mislead. And the family of offers built on buying something else, "Free", "Buy One, Get One Free", "2-For-1 Sale", "Half Price Sale", "1¢ Sale", "50% Off", is not literally free, since the purchaser is required to buy an article to receive the free one; the Guides ask that all the terms and conditions of such an offer be made clear at the outset, and that the seller not increase the regular price of the article to be bought, or decrease its quantity or quality, or attach other strings to the offer.
"Limited", the countdown and the calendar
The Guides' last section names the practice a countdown timer performs: retailers should not make a "limited" offer which, in fact, is not limited, nor advertise a retail price as a "wholesale" price, nor represent that they sell at "factory" prices when they are not selling at the prices paid by those who buy directly from the manufacturer, nor offer seconds or irregular merchandise at a reduced price without disclosing that the higher comparative price refers to perfect goods, nor offer an advance sale without a good-faith expectation of raising the price later. A creator's "this ends Monday at midnight" is a limited-offer claim, and it is true only if the price goes back up on Tuesday.
The calendar behind the claim is fixed by federal law. The Office of Personnel Management's schedule places Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26, 2026 and on Thursday, November 25, 2027, under the section of title 5 of the United States Code that specifies federal holidays. Black Friday is the day after, and Cyber Monday the Monday after that; neither is a holiday in that law, and both are fixed by the Thursday. A brand that films in October, for a price it will hold from Friday to Monday, is working against a date it can put in the brief a year ahead.
Why the number is the brand's, not the creator's
The Endorsement Guides, described in this cocoon's reviews and testimonials guide and creator program guide, make the advertiser responsible for what is said through endorsements and for the substantiation behind it. A price claim in a creator's mouth is an advertiser's claim, and the file behind "was $89" is the brand's price history, not the creator's memory. What usually stops a brand from seeing this is that the creator delivered the video and the brand only approved it; the Guides Against Deceptive Pricing do not know who pressed record, they know who set the price and who ran the ad.
The brief for a Black Friday creator video
- Give the creator the exact price sentence to say, with the former price the brand can document by date and channel, and no room to round it up.
- Write "was" only over a price that was openly offered for a reasonably substantial period in the recent, regular course of business; write "sold at" only over substantial sales at that price.
- For "free", "buy one get one" and "50% off", put every condition in the video or on the screen, and keep the regular price of the article the customer must buy where it was.
- Use "limited", "this weekend only" or a countdown only if the price actually returns on the day the video names.
- Keep the price history with the campaign file, because the Guides' question is whether the bargain is genuine, and the answer is a spreadsheet.
Sources
- eCFR, 16 CFR part 233, Guides Against Deceptive Pricing
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Holidays
- eCFR, 16 CFR 255.1, General considerations
Checked on 21 September 2026. This guide is not legal advice. Where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source prevails.
