Hello and thank you for downloading a witness on the BBC World Service with me Susan Hume.

Today I'm taking you back to Britain in 1992 and the launch of a promotional campaign

that went badly wrong, a free gift with every purchase isn't unusual but the free gift

Hoover was offering was much more valuable than the vacuum cleaners they were

trying to sell.

Shoppers in the UK were being offered the trip of a lifetime

and for free.

Spend over 100 pounds on any Hoover product

and we'll give you two return flight seats to either New York or Florida.

Two return flight seats. Unbelievable.

It was unbelievable.

In the days before the Budget Airlines had got off the ground, the free flights offer looked like the most audacious marketing

campaign ever.

Hoover, the buy word for vacuum cleaners and washing machines in Britain, needed to shift lots of

old stock and keep their factories busy and to start with it

worked.

The sales were hitting the roof.

The Camberslaying factory producing the hovers was non-stop producing. the paper, Hoover for sale, half-price Hoover's for sale. People were just buying the hovers

for the free flights.

Harry Sichi was among the thousands of people who bought a Hoover product for the free flights.

Hoover Goods became a top wedding present as guests

handed over the vacuum cleaner and kept the free flights voucher. Some newlyweds

...