Cups and Balls

Confession:

Years ago on a busy side street in Paris, I fell for the classic tourist scam -  ‘the shell game‘.  During a long day of city wandering, I noticed three or four guys kneeling around another guy who was shifting a little ball around under three cups.  Curiously, I watched for ten minutes. The players would place a wager and guess which cup the ball was under.  In the first game, the player guessed wrong (as inside I screamed NO, its under the other one!!!)  The second, third and fourth games?  Same result.  Then in the fifth – the player guessed correctly and won a massive payout.

With the hook firmly set in my cheek, I stepped up and placed the $50 minimum bet.  The cup guy began shifting and before I could make my selection he and the other guys stood up and looked around as if the authorities were coming and walked swiftly away.  As I turned to pursue, I came face to chest with one of the largest guys I’ve ever seen in my life who simply shook his head and said “don’t bother”.

Go ahead, laugh.  I told myself that I paid $50 to learn a hard lesson and that it would never happen again.

Until last week when Gillette got me with the same trick.

The deal was too good to be true – one razor and 3 blades for 8 dollars.  Turns out that the blades are Mach 3, the razor is Mach 5 and the two are incompatible.  I don’t own a mach 3.  I paid 8 dollars for 1 blade.

I’m sure that a term exists already, but I’m officially coining the phrase ‘cups and balls’ for marketing gimmicks like this. When a company sends email that pushes unrelated products to you because you opted in to hear about something else? That’s cups and balls. A cable company offers a crazy deal for six months and then doubles the price without notice? That’s cups and balls.

Luckily for me, I only need one blade.  Take that Gillette!

Thanks to Feeding the Puppy for pointing out the video.

Tagged as: marketing, promotions