bait and switchn.
/ˌbeɪt (ə)n(d) ˈswɪtʃ/, U.S. /ˈbeɪt (ə)n(d) ˈswɪtʃ/ Originally and chiefly U.S.
1. Marketing. Any of various fraudulent or unscrupulous sales techniques whereby a product is advertised at an attractive price in order to inveigle a consumer into buying a more expensive (or sometimes inferior) substitute. Usually attributive.
ΚΠ
1953 Reader's Digest Aug. 99/1 This was my introduction to the ‘bait 'em and switch 'em’ racket... I learned that ‘bait advertising’ is the biggest gyp and the most widespread abuse in advertising today.]
1962 R. M. Christenson & R. O. McWilliams Voice of People 198 The FCC [sc. Federal Communications Commission] could exercise control over local commercials; but it has failed to do so, with the result that TV and radio consistently carry much of the worst ‘bait and switch’ advertising.
1976 Amer. Econ. Rev. 66 244/1 False advertising, bait-and-switch, dishonored warranties and other forms of fraud..are certainly profitable..if there are new suckers..born every minute.
1978 N.Y. Times 30 Mar. d1/2 The board would investigate whether ‘bait and switch’ techniques had been used by airlines to lure customers with discount fares and then charge them more.
1994 Time 25 July 55/3 A bait-and-switch scheme operated by ‘a slick direct-mail baron’.
2001 Washington Post 4 Sept. a8/5 Eyeglass World last year settled allegations by the state of Florida charging the firm with unlawful marketing practices, including bait-and-switch advertising.
2. gen. The surreptitious or deceitful substitution of one thing (usually less favourable) for another; a hoax in which initially appealing aspects are designed to conceal a much less favourable prospect or outcome.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > [noun] > fraudulent substitution
supposition1569
bait and switch1975
1975 Chem. Week 23 July 5/3 Our representatives in Washington seem to have cooked up their own bait-and-switch game. The near-term effect will be to turn off businessmen. But in the long run, as usual, it will be the average citizen who gets stung.
1992 W. Greider Who will tell People i. iii. 81 Over a period of some years, the politics of taxation degenerated into what looks like a running game of bait and switch—a hustle in which the governing system plays the clever salesman while the taxpayers are the mark.
1994 Spy (N.Y.) July 85/2 Bait and Switch—When you're on-line, use a woman's name as your monitor... This way, you can spend a few days conversing with a babe as a ‘sister’, before letting it be known that you have some salami to bring to the coffee talk!
2001 High Country News 26 Mar. 4/2 It's a political bait-and-switch, and worst of all, it's a cruel hoax that changing any of Montana's bedrock environmental laws will do anything to improve our economic plight.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1962