SELLATHON

noun Also written sell-a-thon (Business World) In marketing jargon (especially in the US): a concentrated attempt to sell, as in an extended cut-price sale, a television programme entirely devoted to the advertisement of a sponsor's products, or a marketing convention. Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -athon (as in marathon) to the verb sell. History and Usage: This is an American coinage of the second half of the seventies which has been applied in a wide variety of contexts, although almost exclusively within the US. Essentially, it seems, any marketing 'marathon' can be a sellathon. Anyone else embarking on such a sellathon, should run a few VTR screen tests before making their final choice of presenter. Broadcast 29 May 1978, p. 20 [The] marketing program for 1989 was outlined to Nugget Distributors members at the group's January Sellathon in Honolulu. Institutional Distribution Mar. 1989, p. 48