The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2026
Three beauty salons faked coupon deadlines that never actually expired
Shape Up House, Miss Paris JPN and Slim Beauty House ran HOT PEPPER coupons marked 'until end of December' — the discounts kept applying after the deadline.
Shape Up House, Inc. · 2026-03-25
What happened
Three beauty salons — Shape Up House, Miss Paris JPN in Osaka and Slim Beauty House in Tokyo — advertised on the HOT PEPPER Beauty booking site with coupons carrying a deadline, such as 'スリム彩革ダイエット 24,200→5500, valid until end of December 2024' and '今だけ70%OFF 骨盤ダイエット 90 min ¥5,000→¥1,500, valid until 25 December 2024'.
The deadline implied the price rise once the date passed. But the same discounted prices continued to be offered after the stated expiry, so the 'valid until' date was a fiction that pressured customers into booking quickly.
Because the terms were shown as more advantageous than they really were, the Consumer Affairs Agency found a violation of Article 5(2) of the Premiums and Representations Act (advantageous misrepresentation). On 25 March 2026 it issued corrective orders against all three salons.
The case is a Japanese example of the fake-deadline marketing vein — urgency manufactured by a deadline the seller never honoured.
Why it happened
- A countdown deadline makes a customer book today instead of comparing prices
- The same discount kept running after the deadline, so the 'until' date was pure fiction
- Three salons under related management ran the same fake-urgency play
The lesson
An expiry date is a promise. When the 70% discount kept running past 'valid until 25 December', the deadline was only there to hurry the customer.
Aftermath
The corrective orders required the three salons to stop the fake-deadline coupons, tell consumers the displays were a violation and introduce recurrence-prevention measures. The case is a lesson that a synthetic countdown is caught the moment the price fails to rise.
Sources
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Plucharm's 'Nobel-winning' hair tonic ads faked proof and a sell-out
Freis Labo's 'after NHK, sold out' serum ads buried a fake campaign
Premium Body Balance promised '-23.3kg in a year' — Saitama's 'No.1' salon had no proof
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.