Abstract:

This paper examines the recent upcoming controversy surrounding advertising called “Bait and Switch”. The topic has gained notoriety worldwide, in both international court systems and in media. Current research unveils various flavors of Bait and Switch tactics, thereby defining the phenomenon in general and legal context. The current research explains the defining criteria for the tactics to be considered as lawful and discusses the conditions where bait and switch tactic is considered a Turkey shootout instead of a fair sport. The article furthers by sharing the offer types excluding fallacious tactics. The article establishes the legality of this practice, exploring the lawful aspects Bait and Switch (BnS) distinguishing it from a fraud by elucidating its implementation in retail market, sales and departmental store market, and also its value in the sight of court of law. The article put a special focus on how BnS strategies are used by small and medium Enterprises (SME) to drive sales. I have given a detailed description of the model and its effect on the equilibrium. It also reviews the policies and guidelines of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding Bait and Switch.

The later part of the paper discusses the research questionnaire conducted by offline survey. The subjects participating in the survey were people belonging to different income groups. Low income groups never shifted to substituted product owing to their financial limitations. High income group on contrary showed much more flexibility in shifting towards the substituted product.