Gimmick
A gimmick is a funny or otherwise attractive addition, sometimes a giveaway (in this case also: give-away ) of little material value. To gimmicks include objects from magazines, exhibition and promotional gifts or stickers in packages of equipment and software ( the Internet, for example, contracts with free usage times ). In addition, gimmicks can be offered as (often limited available ) Featuring the package itself, eg CD or record covers. Often gimmicks are a product, such as corn flakes, enclosed as an incentive. They are mostly appeal to the play instinct. In the German-speaking comic book Yps embraced the concept in the late 1970s known: it offered children gimmicks such as small compasses made of plastic or a "Primeval cancer " Aufzuchtsset. The toys in a Surprise can also be classified as gimmicks. In general, it lacks the gimmicks on an actual benefit to the owner.
Term
The word comes from English, where it is on record from 1926 and originally referred to a device for manipulating gambling. The term is ambiguous depending on the context and, besides those mentioned, also a failed idea, a trick, a gimmick or a antics call. In this sense also of nice looking functions in computer programs with no appreciable benefit ( weather display, small game, ... clock, ) are often called gimmick - at least since the release of Mac OS X is software that class in the German language is increasingly referred to as a widget.