The promotion, aiming to boost sales during the global recession of the early 1990s, offered two complimentary round-trip plane tickets to the United States, worth about £600, to any customer purchasing at least £100 in Hoover products.
The campaign was a financial disaster for the company and led to the loss of Hoover's Royal Warrant after the airing of a 2004 BBC documentary.
The European branch of the company was eventually sold to one of its competitors, Candy, having never recovered from the losses, the promotion and the subsequent scandal.
In the 1980s, Hoover was owned by parent company Maytag and was rapidly expanding with the potential to claim a larger share of a growing market.
This period of expansion, however, coincided with the UK's entry into a major economic recession, and Hoover was beginning to face competition from newly established British vacuum cleaner companies such as Dyson.
In order to do this, Hoover would offer free round-trip airline tickets to the United States to individual customers who had bought at least £100 worth of the unsold wares.
Expecting modest engagement, Hoover had partnered with a small (now defunct) airline company called JSI Travel, which was in a similar position: struggling under the weight of the recession and desperate to unload cheap flights.
The addition of American locations caused a surge in consumer response because the airline tickets held an approximate retail value of £600 and could apparently be obtained for an outlay of just £100.
One man, David Dixon, claimed that in addition to not receiving airline tickets, the Hoover washing machine he had purchased to obtain a trip to the USA had broken down.
In 1993, the Hoover Holidays Pressure Group was formed, led by Harry Cichy and Sandy Jack, to protest against the company's broken promises.