[jeff5may]

Sounds like a racket to me. Imagine this:

Yuppies go couponing on Saturday, spend their coupons on x many bulbs. When a hall light goes out, the bulb gets changed for an LED equivalent. Yuppie discovers however long later, after receipt is lost, that LED light isn't perfect, swaps LED hall light with incandescent attic light. Recycled attic light quickly dies and is replaced... process continues until all short-lived incandescent lights are replaced with new technology bulbs at great profit to retailers. Money is spread around between retailers, vendors, and power company so they can roll out the next half-baked marketing campaign. Yuppies everywhere save very little money on their power bills but brag that they use new technology bulbs when surveyed. Attic and porch lights everywhere last forever.

Maybe next campaign the vendor will have received enough complaints to warrant a revision, but by then they will be rolling out something else...