Newspaper matsuri gift scam?

Yesterday someone buzzed the door, and was carrying parcels so I presumed it was a delivery.

Instead he barged in the door and lay down a bag of Koshi Hikari, and gift sets of Yebisu and cooking oil, saying that I could choose one because it was for a newspaper matsuri (no name, just "newspaper"). I told I wasn't interested and didn't even have a subscription, but he continued with his spiel about how I could learn kanji with it, but I still told him no, then he suggested an English newspaper (again, no title, just an unspecified paper), and finally after repeated "NO"s he finally got the message and buggered off.

So, what was the scam?