I think everyone has heard of the old adage about ending up washing the dishes when you can’t pay for the food, but a restaurant in France has turned it into a reality. Primarily as a publicity stunt, a French washing liquid brand has created the Mir Restaurant, which is charging customers in the form of dishwashing tasks, instead of money.

Customers can order items from a set menu, including starters, mains and desserts. Rather than listing the prices, however, each dish had an icon next to it indicating what each customer would have to wash up in order to pay for the meal.

Now although this is a marketing stunt, designed to promote washing up liquid, it does prompt a few questions:

1. Could you really get some customers to pay for their food in return for work like this?

2. Moving away from restaurants, are there other businesses where it would be mutually advantageous to get customers to pay in some way other than by cash?

3. The ‘paying by washing the dishes’ idea comes from an old adage. Are there other old adages that could be brought to life for publicity purposes in this way?