"WE WANT FREE TICKETS TO AMERICA!!" "You can only go to Gary, Indiana." "Oh, nevermind."

You just wanted an excuse to use all the puns, don't lie.

Not gonna lie, I burst out into laughter when you said 'the hostage situation'. The whole debacle sounds like an Only Fools plotline, and that just sent me.

"No relation". Well played, sir. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

When my parents first married in 1974, then had me in 76, there was a door to door Hoover salesman that sold them a Hoover vacuum. They paid some absolutely insane price for it. My mother has and uses the vacuum to this day. It really was a quality product in Canada. At least in the 70's.

It's great that you now have a platform that allows your dry sense of humour to come out!

Me and a pal flew to new York in 1994 courtesy of Hoover. I don't remember being messed about by them at all, though I was flexible on dates as I was a student at the time. The face value printed on the tickets was in the thousands though. I had a great time, thanks Hoover!

"By the end of the 1980's, Hoover had warehouses full of products just........ gathering dust- and not in the way they were supposed to"😊😊

My mom may still have the Hoover Constellation canister vacuum she got as a wedding present in 1957. Last I heard, the motor still works, but the connectors have worn out.

To me, this story reeks of high-powered executives who have never looked at a price tag in their lives. "It's two tickets to America! How much could it cost, 100 pounds?"

My parents bought a Hoover vacuum cleaner for this offer. They ended up sitting in the worst seats-at the back next to the toilet. The For Sale ads in the local newspaper were full of these vacuum cleaners for a very long time afterwards!

My late parents used this offer to stay with friends in Orlando. They lived in Southampton and the flight went from Manchester at stupid o'clock in the morning. I took them there. On the way back at Orlando airport, they got talking to a couple from Liverpool on the same offer. Their flight was to Gatwick!

This story is included in a British book called “Business Blunders” I got from my grandfather. Also includes, among others, the downfall of the Osborne computer company.

Ok, I loved this video!! 😅 I respect that you don’t include personal commentary on the Fascinating Horror channel, as a matter of fact it’s why I love that channel. But the script here was gold! I’m a big fan, my guy 😊

Fascinating! As a retired marketer, I can't believe I'd never heard about this - maybe because in the 1990s I was too busy marketing Jelly Belly jelly beans into the UK. Anyway, it's a great example of stupid marketing. Government regulations almost always affect the form commercial promotions can take; but all Hoover had to do in this case was to offer *a chance to win* round-trip tickets to the US with a minimum purchase, with the winner(s) drawn at random. That's just basic marketing campaign planning, and Hoover got what they deserved for having such idiots in their Marketing department.

I had never heard of this particular dirt on Hoover. Also love how your humor writing is also as excellent as your narration, research, and horror writing skills are!

Good Lord what a bunch of bad noise over an advertising stunt. Then to have it go on and help cost other poor folks their jobs, who were just trying to hit the clock. Great work as always sir, and cool illustrations too.

I used to have one of the old, good Hoovers. I inherited it from my parents, and it was over 25 years old when it finally broke. The sad thing was that it wasn't the motor that died, but the upright part sheared off at the base due to metal fatigue after years of being moved up and down.

I remember the days when a vacuum was referred to as a Hoover, whatever the make! I didn’t realise the company still existed!

The comics and puns are great 😂 really enjoying the new content

Really love these type of videos. Fascinating Failures maybe you could do the Sega Saturn next.

I remember that scandal. A colleague of mine bought a vacuum and he was furious he didn’t get his free holiday!

I got my flights. London Gatwick to Orlando. Admittedly 4am on January 1st. Got my Dad to drive us to airport 😀

This was a great one!! Dumb idea about the flights but great video! I bout fell out my chair during the Hoover Hostage Crisis part! My dude had had enough of the foolishness!!

A blast from the past. My parents bought a Hoover for this and eventually got great flights.

There was one event that went wrong in one way, but good in another way. In 1956 Reader’s Digest decided to take their subscription letter proverb in a literal sense, by mailing two pennies with each subscription letter. They ordered 100 million pennies, which they promptly stored all in one room, and the excess weight caused the floor to collapse. But the promo worked, it brought in a record number of responses.

I didn't know you had another channel! Awesome, I'm here for it. 😊

Thank you Kristian Crow for another one interesting video. My mum always says "she's going to hoover." And I say oh, you're going to vacuum. I know what she means, I'm just teasing her of course. 🙂

The best point for me is the irony of human nature, where people spend more than the original offer to punish the company for weaseling out

I love this kind of content...Maybe im an old school nerd, but i find it so nostalgic and very interesting, thanks 👍🏽💯

10:10 "There are relatively few ways that a free handheld mop can go wrong." THE CHALLENGE HAS BEEN ISSUED

i absolutely love all the puns you managed to put into this story 😂

I like the drawings used. Who's the author?

Hoover’s Gerald Ratner moment.

Went to Florida courtesy of Hoover. The Hoover Junior I bought is still going!

Ok but the comic showed has a cute art style

Fascinating Horror Channel is my favorite since it's beginning!!

This reminds me of airlines offering milage incentives to find people flying people flying back and forth from Boston to NYC 3 times a day on a weekend just for the miles.

My mum used to work in the hoover factory in cambuslang (near Glasgow) the Christmas party that hoover did for the workers children was fantastic.

Awesome! I've heard this story before, but I love hearing my favorite Disasters Documentary guy narrate this, because I also love corporate and economic intrigue stories.

Another FF that I chortled all the way through! Thanks, KC!

Lol 😂 you sure went all out on this one. Well done, sir. bravo 👏🏽

I LOVE these fascinating failures videos, my fave of all your content! Please make more 🙏🏻

There were stories of weddings where the bride & groom had 10 or more Hoover Vacuums - all minus the flights voucher - as wedding gifts

How tf did I not know Spengler from Ghostbusters was named after this guy??? The trap is a damn vacuum!!

Hi Kristian Crow! That was so interesting and funny. I know from your profile that there is no particular theme to this channel, but if you do more "Fascinating Failures" I would be keen to hear them. Thanks for your hard work ✈

Wow ....didnt hear this story before ..thankyou❤

Just saw reference to this channel from your other one. Subscribed. I haven't even watched it yet! Just started, paused, subbed, now watch. Greetings from Dimboola, in Victoria, Australia 🇦🇺 😊.

My boy you sound even more baked than the last one, absolute legend on the second channel hahaha

i want you to know how much i appreciate these puns

You have to do the Pepsi Jet plane give away drama.

You have a new space. I couldnt click fast enough. Said I'd listen if you recited the phone book, i meant it. Im subscribing so if you post, im gonna listen. Then i'll plug in my Hoover Wind Tunnel Pet blah blah machine and vacuum! Cuz it's Friday night and I'm that kind of boring.

These are truly enjoyable, keep them coming!!!

Grew up in the US South. A lot of old timers around here still call their refrigerator a ”kelvinator”. I’ve always liked that! 😊

I wonder how many of those vacuum cleaners were given as gifts ?

I hope this channel takes off. These disastrous company decision videos are super interesting and amusing

This is brilliant, i do remember all the furore 😂 love your dry humour, was chuckling throughout, especially the hostage situation 😂

I imagine that for many in the pressure group, it at some point became no longer about money or plane tickets, but rather about sending a message.

It is a real shame that a company that makes a good product should be brought down by incompetent management. They definitely were good products and we were very pleased with the washing machines that were made in the Merthyr factory. The workforce lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The washing machines that were subsequently imported after the takeover of Hoover were very poor by comparison.

I learned about this debacle from the KZfaqr Applemask. Thanks for elaborating on it. Quite a dust-up!

I moved into my first property when this offer was on, people were buying hoovers just to get the flights then selling them cheap. I found a local one in the small ads (no internet then) and got a water hoover (quite a new technology) for a steal. Everybody happy... except Hoover. Only Hoover in the house now is the washing machine, the vacuum cleaner is a Dyson. Good to hear Spangler get a mention.

I could listen to you tell stories all day, be they light or dark! And the puns - the puns!

I’m sorry David. But the engineers comments made me crease up.

Love this ! You are hilarious

absolutely love these videos

I love this series already 😂

Well done the trophy for most puns in 11 minutes is yours😂😂

I had my grandmother's Hoover canister type that she bought in the late 40's after she got a new vacuum sometime in the 70's. I used it in the garage to vacuum out cars and anything else I needed to vacuum. Damn thing lasted until almost 2000. I had her old HotPoint fridge in the garage too that was from 1950, I left it there when I sold the house in 2001 and it was still working. We used to make some quality appliances in America

Have a suggestion for a future topic: the disasterous production and initial box office failure(s) of Heaven's Gate (1980 movie) and how it helped hasten the demise of United Artists.

I didn't know you had another channel! I quickly subscribed!

I remember this, but let's face it, you couldn't make it up 😂

Gathering dust, pull the plug, down the pipe, something sucking...I see what Mister Crow did here.

The puns, they're horrifying 😂

IN 1992 England had a Queen, Elizabeth II . . . We hadn’t had a King since the 1950s, Charlie-boy didn’t get his sparkly-hat until 2023.

Thank you K. Crow

Geez, thought I had subbed already! Situation remedied👍

I don't trust my vacuum, it collects dirt on everything

I was suckered into this and never got a thing. Still to this day I’ve never bought another hoover product.

The deal wasn't just via department stores - it was any Hoover retailer including Comet, Currys and independents (I worked for one of the latter during this)

My sister and family waited for nearly 4-5 years to get their flight tickets after persevering through Dozens and Dozens of letters and faxes (Yes, it was that long ago). Eventually, she flew from Manchester to Orlando on Air UK Leisure, two free tickets, and three more cheap as chips extra tickets. Luckily for my sister, her neighbour at the time was a lawyer for what is or still is an ambulance chasing type of law firm. Company.

I remember hearing about this offer when I was 12 years old and couldn't get my head around how they were going to make any money out of it. People were just buying the product to get the free flights. If ebay had existed then it would be flooded with unwanted new hoovers.

unfulfilled promises are the best way to get rid of customers...

Love this!

Didn't hurt the company over here. Once those Dyson wheels started falling apart over here, people went back to the more normal vacuums.

I bet the people that made these decisions are now in senior management.

Hoover we're the generic name for vacuums. I used to work for a cleaning janitorial company, people would also ask for Hoover bags, even if they didn't actually own one!!!😂

Amazing Hoover management literally hoovered themselves up completely… hardly surprising

A 72 year old "HOVER CONSTELLATION" I own is still working fine, bought brand new back in 1952, by my Mum, the only replacement parts it needed was a new plastic flexy hose as the original cracked by 1996, the company made great quality products back in the 1950's & 60's, and what I loved about the Constellation as a child was it floated on air and had a option to connect the vacuum pipe underneath and it would blow air, great for dusting up in high areas for example, a very useful feature, and very unique for its time, and still to this day, as I don't think any modern day vacuum cleaner offer that feature?,or indeed would last 72 years?.

Hoover PR really needed help another of their promotions in the UK was, win a night out with Jimmy Saville

What a fucking insane story. It's proof that the people in charge aren't always the best and brightest.

I LOVE these second channel vids!😊 Who does your illustrations?

You really swept up with those vacuum puns

I just need to spangle the stairs 😂

Your pun game is on point! 😂

I learned today that it's legal in the UK to hold someone against their will, or is at least an infringement not worth enforcing. Perhaps it cuts into tea time?

I remember this, my aunt and uncle went to the US on it. Genuinely

I heard on the radio folk were fighting in the stores over the last remaining £100 Hoover on the shelves. I used to sell Kirby Vacuum cleaners - Hoover were rivals so I bought one and jumped through all the hoops and got two flights to New York for my birthday on dates I specified. 😂 Cost was £40 as I sold the new unopened Hoover for £60

Well done story and use of wordplay! It didn’t suck to listen to it at all!

So remember this and the Ratner debacle. Think it made the Ester Rantzen "thats life" show which was watched by millions at the time.

In 1994 I successfully took Hoover to court. They requested a court in Wales. I’m in London. I got my London court and they brought a Welsh solicitor down. Must have cost them a fortune. I even tried to settle in the court room which the judge encouraged. The solicitor said he was going to vigorously defend. That was a mistake. I won and got value of two Florida flights paid. Still makes me smile.