Series Starts Tuesday 12th April
10:35 on BBC 1 Wales. Sky Channel 972…
On August 1 1992 Hoover launched a promotional campaign in order to shift the backlog of appliances building up at stores throughout the country. The deal was that if you spent £100 on any Hoover appliance you would receive two free flights to a European destination of your choice.
People rushed to snap up the offer – and buy the Hoover appliances, and seeing that the promotion had delivered sales beyond their expectation, Hoover marketing people extended the offer. In October if you spent £100 on a Hoover appliance you would receive two free flights to the USA.
Unbelievable, the television advert said, and it was. Hundreds of thousands of people who’d bought a Hoover appliance were now demanding their free flights. The promotion turned into a disaster that would cost the company £30million.
This episode of Red Letter Day tells the story of why Hoover were driven to launch the ill-fated promotion, and its consequences. In doing so, using unique archive footage, we trace the history of the firm from the time it came to Pentrebach in Merthyr in 1948 through to its closure in 2009.
The town’s former MP Lord Ted Rowlands explains why ‘when Hoover caught cold Merthyr sneezed’ and with his first-hand knowledge fondly recalls what Hoover meant to Merthyr.