The Apprentice’s Tom Skinner wears ‘sandwich board’ and tries to flog quick meals

The 33 year old business whizz tried all sorts of attention-grabbing tactics on passers-by, who were either engrossed in their phones or had earbuds plugged in. These included showing off his spinning skills with a giant arrow sign, standing on a ‘soap box’ to shout at people, and even parading around wearing a sandwich board.

The East End ‘sales pitch maestro’, famous for his ‘bosh’ catchphrase, eventually drew a crowd and entertained them with his cheeky wit. This street performance followed a study of 2,000 adults which revealed that 21% regularly wander around staring at their phone or paying little heed to their surroundings spending an average of 15 minutes daily in this state.

Tom Skinner, who has teamed up with McDonald’s UK, which commissioned the research to launch its three for £3 ‘Mix ‘n Match’ deal, said: “Some people walk around in a bit of a daze even when there’s a lot going on around them. I wanted to bring out all my sales tricks to point people in the right direction of something tasty.”

The study also discovered that 31% of adults confessed to being so oblivious to their surroundings that they have missed something unusual happening near them. However, 45% of those surveyed, via OnePoll, will ignore special offers on food like lunch deals that they do notice while out and about.

Top reasons for not taking advantage of these deals include thinking it won’t save much money, suspecting there must be a catch, and finding them too complicated.

Tom Skinner chimed in: “It’s amazing what you’ve got to do to grab some people’s attention.”