More than ten years on who would have guessed a Hoover type offer appears. It would seem marketeers have learn’t little & more to the point the ASA has neither the power or the ground rules in place to stop this nonsence? I have little doubt that the Infamous Hoover Free Flight Fiasco, has yet to be toppled. However the AVON promotion has come pretty close. With recent offers on many free & even free flight offers looking to good to be true & it would seem they often are? Avon are reported to have had over 750,000 applicants & only 60,000 phones to give away.
Avon representives told their customers that they would receive a voucher which they could exchange for a free phone in Orange shops. You guessed it they ran out of phones? Hoover used the words “Unbeleivable” in their offer. Avon in their brochure, ” Isn’t that too good to be true?” It all sound very familiar.
Where it all goes wrong is that the company sees the sales coming through numbers become massive. As in Hoover’s case the first promotion was a sham, should have been stoped there and then but no, a secound promotion starts.
The likes of the ASA should have the ground rules in place to stop this from the start. Ten years on and lessons should have been learnt.
Lessons should have been learn’t by the Hoover Free Flight Fiasco? Sadly it looks like that have not!
Harry Cichy has lobbied over the Hoover Flight Fiasco, say’s ” It is unbeleivable that this could happen gain, however it is an accident waiting to happen!”