I was doing the “What is this stupid BOGO thing” but I was doing it ~ 5 years ago and prior to that don’t recall ever encountering it. I don’t tend to watch television (and when I do it’s most often not a station that has commercials, and when it is I switch off the sound until the show comes back on). So that might have something to do with it. Now I get email spam with BOGO in the subject line. And Facebook and other website ads.
Telling someone to bog off seems like a legitimate British insult.
It is!
It’s a somewhat old-school playground insult of the kind that would get you a stern look but not properly told off… Which makes that acronym even better IMO.
I think “BOGOF” is a British thing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in the US.
Now that that’s settled, who’s going to tell @AHunter3 about YOLO?
mmm
For me, it’s the last 24 months or so. Took me awhile, but I’m seeing it enough now that I’m not confused by it.
FOMO, fear of missing out. And FAFO, fuck around, find out.
One may have FOMO about a BOGO, but YOLO, so best not to FAFO?
The first time I saw BOGO was in a men’s clothing shop at University Town Center in La Jolla ca 1980. Their front windows had alternating banners, one that screamed “BOGO” with “buy one, get one free” in smaller type, and the other said “GOING OUT for BUSINESS”, with the ‘for’ in tiny type.
A more recent acronym I learned was FIFO, which I thought meant ‘fuck it, find out.’ I was wrong!
That may well be the initial use of it that I remember, too.
I have a memory of Bo Jackson (shortly after the hip injury ended his athletic career) doing a shoe store ad, along the lines of “Bo Knows BOGO,” and it may well have been for Payless, but I’ve been unable to find a copy of it on Youtube.
I’m stealing this. 
OK, I did find another nonce usage from 1980, but nothing further back. The first national chain I could find using it was Arby’s in 1991. 1993 seems to be when it first starts showing up consistently, pretty much in grocery stores. 2002 looks like the inflection point where it really took off.