Across the two studies, we find evidence for value dis- counting of a free gift: a product that has been offered as a free gift may later find it difficult to be a stand alone prod- uct--consumers may be less willing to purchase it or willing to pay less for it. The value-discounting effect is moderated by the type of brand offering the free gift and by the presence of value information about the free gift-both alternate sources of information that consumers can use to make infer- ences about the value of the gift. When the price of the pro- moting product is known, but the value of the free gift offer is ambiguous, people appear to use an expected discount rate to impute the value of the gift. This leads to higher priced pro- moting brands being perceived as offering gifts of higher value. The following hypotheses are developed and are followed by a description of the two studies