What happened when Silo got cute with their ad
When Silo Electronics wanted to advertise a stereo system at $299, they decided to get cute with their ad. Instead of saying “299 dollars,” they said, “299 bananas.” Apparently “bananas” is slang for “dollars” in some parts.
You can probably guess what happened next. Quite a few buyers showed up with the requisite number of bananas. At the time, 299 bananas retailed for $40-60. Wisely, Silo honored the ad and accepted the bananas as payment in full.
The next problem was what to do with all those bananas. Silo ended up with about 11,000 of them, which was more than local zoos or food banks were prepared to consume.
At least bananas smell sweet. Lucky thing the ad didn’t say “299 clams.”
Silo went of out business in 1995.We doubt this incident had anything to do with it. (To read the whole banana story on Snopes.com, click here.)
—Steve Cuno
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