An Avon brochure in the U.K. promising a free mobile phone with the purchase of skin cream earlier this year asked if customers thought the offer sounded too good to be true.

Turns out, it was.

According to Friday's China Daily, when approximately 750,000 customers sought to cash in on the mobile phone promotion, the cosmetics and perfume seller known for its "Avon Calling" slogan, found itself short by some 690,000 phones, according to newspaper reports that Avon would neither confirm nor dispute.

The shortfall prompted 27 complaints from customers and from Avon sales representatives to the Advertising Standards Authority, which wagged a finger at Avon on Wednesday and asked it to "take more care" with future promotions.

The incident invited comparisons to an ill-fated 1992 U.K. promotion by Hoover offering free airline flights with the purchase of a vacuum cleaner or other appliance. After would-be takers flooded Hoover with demand it could not meet, customers took the company to court, and the fiasco eventually became a case study for marketing students.

A spokeswoman for Avon Products Inc. said: "four out of five customers received their voucher" for a free phone and that one was available for each of those vouchers.

Avon, which sells products direct to customers in the storied tradition of its Avon Lady representatives, said it unsuccessfully tried to negotiate for more phones with promotion partner Orange after it realized demand was exceeding estimates.

One person familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity, said the initial estimate was for 60,000 free phones to be claimed.

Customers who spent at least 15 pounds on Avon's Anew line of skin cream products from February 1 to April 30 were offered a voucher for a free Siemens, Samsung, Nokia or similar mobile phone on a pay-as-you-go plan from Orange.

The France Telecom mobile phone unit said it signed on to lure customers of Avon's demographic.

Orange said in a statement Wednesday that any customer who had presented the voucher before April 30 would receive a phone no later than early August.

"Orange shops that did not have enough promotional phones available took details of Avon customers and will contact them when new stock was available," the company said.

The promotion's fine print stipulated that the offer was subject to availability.

The advertising regulator rapped Avon for its make-good offer of a voucher for more skin cream to customers who could not get the mobile phone.

"The authority concluded that the promoters should have made clear in their letter to customers that they could cancel their order and that the Anew product offered at half price was a goodwill gesture only, not a substitute for the phone voucher," the Advertising Standards Authorities (ASA) said.

"The process has been a learning experience for us," said the Avon spokeswoman, who asked that her name not be used as a matter of company policy.

(China Daily July 31, 2004)