Freebies come at a cost
Other
AUGUST 2025
“But they’re giving them away.”
This is never a good reason to accept a free promo item – whether it be a drink bottle at a marathon, a cap at a company picnic or an umbrella at a conference.
By accepting these branded items, you are sending the message to the company who had them made that you wanted a drink bottle with their logo on it. That makes them happy because their logo is now travelling with you reaching so many more people. And if you’re happy to do that, surely others will too. So they keep making them.
Whereas what often happens is that drink bottle with the XYZ logo on it never gets used because either:
- it is poor quality. Let’s face it; giveaway promo items are rarely high quality.
- you already have many drink bottles at home, and when you make the choice of which drink bottle to use each day, the low quality logo’d bottle is low on your rotation list.
By saying yes to a promo item, whether it’s a drink bottle, cheese knife set or a pair of ridiculous thongs, you send a message to say “make more please”.
What we really need to be doing is saying no thank you, and if you are comfortable to do so, explain why. Send that promo person back to the office with all their free gear and some things to think about.