The Hoover free flights promotion was a marketing promotion begun in 1992 in which the British division of The Hoover Company promised free airline tickets to customers who purchased more than £100 worth of their products. However, what Hoover had not anticipated was that huge numbers of customers started buying Hoover products not because they wanted the actual appliances, but simply because they wanted the tickets.
Initially the offer was for two round-trip tickets to Europe, but later it was expanded to the USA, at which point the consumer response increased enormously, as the normal price of these flights was several times more than the £100 purchase required to get free tickets. The company subsequently found itself overwhelmed by the demand for tickets (and even for new vacuum cleaners) and the cost of the flights.
Read more about Hoover Free Flights Promotion: History, Result, Follow-up
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