Deception

My daughter attends a private school and yesterday she showed me a personalized invitation that had the local Art In the Park logo which stated a gift awaited her at the information center and she could claim it at 2 PM if we attended. All the kids at school received this and since I thought it was like a school fund raising event at the park I told her we could go.

So the family piles into the SUV this afternoon and head off. I am waiting at a stop light and look at the invitation because there is a small map printed on it showing the location of the park. That's when I read that this "event" is sponsored by a large home building company. That did not raise the red flag but the following sentence did. It said the "event" was in a private residential community. I thought maybe this could still turn out ok because some of the parks in these communities are large, but I rather doubted that.

When we arrive at the gated community, I notice that it is not completed yet. A lot of cars in front of the Information Center, balloons, kids, and parents. I shook my head in disbelief and told my wife we are going to have to listen to some damned presentation on this new residential community and was a little irritated at myself for not reading the invitation more carefully yesterday. So we spent the next half hour looking at the model homes (they weren't too bad) and then my wife filled out a contact card. My daughter received her gift as we were leaving. A white t-shirt with the home builders logo and "Kid's Club" printed on it.

Shame on the school for playing marketer for a home builder and shame on me for not reading the invitation more thoroughly.