Vacuum Trap

"The Vacuum Trap – The promotion that cost a company 50 million pounds" analyzes the worst marketing campaign in history. In 1992, the British branch of Hoover offered a deal: Buy a vacuum cleaner for £100, and get two free round-trip flights to America.



Business writer Peter Wright details the mathematical impossibility. The flights were worth over £600. Hoover expected only a few people to bother with the complex application process. Instead, 200,000 people bought vacuums they didn't need just for the tickets.



The book chronicles the collapse: Hoover couldn't pay, customers sued, executives were fired, and the company lost its Royal Warrant and was eventually sold. "The Vacuum Trap" is a lesson in "loss leaders" gone wrong and the danger of underestimating the consumer's desire for a bargain.