Commercial · Sears and the sewing machines (FTC, 1974), the American giant Sears was the subject of a Federal Trade Commission complaint for bait-and-switch on its sewing machines: models advertised at knock-down prices served as bait, but the salespeople, whose pay rewarded the sale of expensive models, discouraged purchase of the advertised product ("unavailable", "unreliable") in order to steer buyers towards higher-end models. The case, resolved by an FTC order banning these practices, illustrates the commercial decoy in its illegal version: the appealing offer exists only to capture the contact and redirect the decision once the customer is in the store.
Political · Announced reforms, shrunken implementing decrees, a recurring pattern in public policy: a reform is presented, with much communication, as ambitious and universal, opinion embraces the principle, and then the implementing texts, published months later, once media attention has subsided, reduce its scope through raised thresholds, a restricted perimeter or a postponed timetable. The political capital has been banked at the announcement; the disappointment is diffuse and belated. Without naming any specific figure, this mechanism of the "grand principle / small decrees" is an institutional transposition of the decoy, which feeds distrust over "broken promises".
Diplomatic · Agreement in principle at a ceremony, renegotiated annexes, in commercial diplomacy it is common for a framework agreement to be signed at a heavily publicised ceremony, publicly committing both states to the broad principles, while the technical annexes, precise customs duties, quotas, timetables, remain open. One party can then harden these annexes once the commitment has been made public, betting that the other side will find it harder to go back on an agreement celebrated before the cameras than on a mere draft. The lever here is face and ceremonial commitment: backtracking would cost more in international political capital than the extra charge conceded on the details.
Judicial · Coulter Motor: prices inflated after the bait (FTC & Arizona, 2024), the FTC and the Arizona attorney general sued the dealership Coulter Motor Company for practices combining deceptive advertising, price mark-ups once the customer was committed, and options added without authorisation. The case, settled by a financial judgment of 2.6 million dollars, shows the litigated version of the automotive decoy: the displayed price serves as bait, and the extra cost appears only at the contractual stage, when the customer is already psychologically an owner. The file confirms that turning the decoy into material deception exposes one to heavy penalties.
Corporate · "Unlimited" offers then throttled (telecoms, FTC), several American operators sold data plans presented as "unlimited" before throttling the speed beyond a few gigabytes. The FTC brought proceedings, one of the files ending in a settlement of more than 100 million dollars. Mechanically, this is a mass decoy: the "unlimited" argument wins the subscription and the customer's contractual commitment, the real restriction being revealed only in use, once the contract is signed and the cancellation cost is in place. The case illustrates the walk-away point between a tolerated marketing hook and an actionable deception.
Everyday life · The appointment set, the time revealed afterwards (Cialdini, 1978), the foundational experiment by Cialdini and Cacioppo reproduces the decoy on the scale of a favour: students agree to take part in a psychology study, then learn only after their agreement that it starts at seven in the morning. Not only do more of them accept than in the group informed of the time from the outset, but actual attendance on the day is also higher. The everyday scene, saying yes to an invitation or a lift-share, then discovering the awkward time but sticking to it "because we said yes", is exactly this mechanism: the decision, once made, defends itself.
