Drum up

The candidate gave speeches, shook hands, and kissed babies in an effort to drum up support before the election.

From 1910, to drum up custom, the Metropolitan would operate a luxury Pullman service from Verney Junction to Aldgate.

In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.