During a four-month promotional period, a nail salon offers $100 to any customer who purchases a new long-lasting manicure if the manicure does not stay intact for an entire month. A customer purchases within the period and the manicure lasts three weeks. Can the customer collect the $100?

• A. Yes, because the customer accepted by purchasing during the promotional period.
• B. No, because acceptance requires performance of the condition (manicure lasting a month).
• C. Yes, because promises in advertisements are always enforceable.
• D. No, because the customer did not complete a full month.

Answer: (D)

The key idea is how conditional offers operate under unilateral contracts: payment happens only when the specified performance occurs. Here, the salon’s promo promises $100 if the manicure “does not stay intact for an entire month.” That sets a time-based condition that must be observed to trigger payment.

Because the manicure lasted three weeks, a full month did not elapse. The condition for paying is therefore not met within the required observation period, so no payout is triggered. In other words, the event the salon conditions on (not lasting a full month) depends on a full month passing to determine whether it happened; since a full month hasn’t passed, the offer isn’t activated.