There is such a thing as a free lunch: you and ten friends can dine at an upscale restaurant for little more than five minutes of your time. As part of its sales campaign, Ameriprise (an AmEx subsidiary and financial services provider) offers to sponsor lunch for ten in exchange for your attention to a short schpiel from a sales rep.

Four free lunches later, I am happy to report that this is a delicious offer without a string in sight. Unlike related "free stay" pitches from timeshare sharks, Ameriprise lunches carry no hard sell: in fact, the exchange usually lasts under ten minutes while the sales rep lets you order any entree from the restaurant's menu, presents his canned speech, and has paid and disappeared before your linguini ai frutti di mare arrives. You're then free to enjoy lunch with your friends.

How can this be lucrative for Ameriprise? We're not sure, but it must be, or the company would find some other way to spend its discretionary funds. That is, the recruitment efforts must convince enough people to begin paying for Ameriprise services— which include everything from investment advice to portfolio management to help with drafting a will—to keep your lunch subsidized. Luckily, you can eat without any strings beyond a quick follow up phone call to make sure your linguine was sufficiently al dente.

To get a free lunch, simply drop a business card in any Ameriprise fishbowl (you'll find fishbowls at the entrance to restaurants in cities such as DC, New York, and LA). The instructions claim the process is selective, but because every card represents a potential customer, every card eventually ‘wins.’ When the rep calls you, be sure to negotiate up for a better (or more expensive) restaurant. Bon Appetite!