Word: gimmick
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Princeton's Episcopal chaplain, the Rev. Rowland Cox, believes that students shy away from the open convert seeker or "the guy who wants to gimmick around with your life." "Our job is people," says the Rev. Harold Cooper, one of the Protestant chaplains at the University of Massachusetts, "and the idea is not to bring them into the fold but to help them live better lives as persons." Most chaplains today shun even such an old-fashioned evangelistic idea as a "Religious Emphasis Week"; they talk about God only when the students want to. Church-sponsored activities, often organized...
Though the plastic-cased Swinger has its limits-it takes only black-and-white, wallet-sized pictures that are about 40%' smaller than the ones taken by the other Polaroid cameras now being sold-Polaroid believes that it has a huge market. One gimmick in the new model: a little sign in the view finder flashes "yes" or "no" to tell the photographer whether the light is right. The company launched the camera in Canada last July, sold out practically all its first month's supply in one weekend, now has to ration its stocks to Canadian dealers...
...oncoming Corvair. "It's a hit!" chortled one cop. "I've got the warrant!" shouted another. The cops flagged down the Corvair, flashed their warrant and arrested the driver-Gloria Placente, 34, a bewildered blonde housewife headed for the beach. Triumphantly, the cops explained their gimmick: a computer miles away had just squealed that Mrs. Placente had neglected to answer a summons after she ran a red light 16 months...
This time, instead of cutting prices, Schulte is selling his "dew-fresh" eggs at 60 to 90 more per dozen than his competitors. His gimmick: stamping the laying date on each egg, rushing the eggs to stores by the following morning and guaranteeing their freshness. "My method means sales ten times as great per worker as in the textile industry," he says. "It shows how ridiculous it is to talk about agriculture's not being profitable." Germany's notoriously inefficient small farmers and egg distributors look at such ingenuity differently−as unfair competition. They are clamoring...
Clutter of Gimmicks. Sunbeam and its competitors do much of this business in products that were unknown five years ago. Growing affluence and the trend to easier living have stimulated demand for almost everything electric, from cradle rockers to foot warmers. Small appliances also sell well because, unlike a refrigerator or a dishwasher, most are in the $25-and-under price range and are often bought on impulse. The market is still cluttered with many gimmicks (electric whisk brooms and wastepaper baskets), but it has also made many onetime luxuries commonplace. Sales of ice crushers and combination electric knife sharpener...