I don’t often eat at McDonalds, but I did today. Anyway they have this “who wants to be a millionaire” game going. You get a little card on your fries container with a question on it and you scratch off a box corresponding to one of four possible answers. I got a pretty easy question and went on to scratch off my “prize box” which revealed the inscription “three”. I brought this up to the cash register thinking I had won prize number 3 - 50 cents off your next purchase of nuggets or something like that. I was pleasantly surprised when the kid at the counter opened up the register and plopped three crisp greenbacks in my hand.
I was thinking that this had to be one of the higher value prizes that they were giving away otherwise they would get soaked with this thing. The way I figure, promotions like this are designed so that the average customer gets the answer right and feels good about him/herself. This one however, could almost be a considered a “take home test”, so maybe the questions are a little tougher than what could be expected from the average bigmac connoisseur. So my question is in part a poll: what sort of prizes have you seen on these cards? Three dollars cash is on the high end right? Also what do you think of this promotion? I prefer to a straight scratch-and-win, because it puts some value on knowledge and it gave me a chance to feel smart. I’d like to see the state lottery do something similar!
I just picked up some McDonald’s on the way to work today and found out about this. I got the question right and scratched off a prize. I won a cheesebuger.
Yeah, like I’m gonna carry around this hunk of carboard for a one free measly cheesebuger, which is almost all bun anyway, so I scratched off the remaining 5 Prize boxes to see what I could’ve won had I picked one of the other ones.
The other possible prizes were a small drink, $2, small fries, small coffee, or an apple pie. Those are prizes?
I remember the good old days, when you used to be able to win Big Macs and Quarter Pounders… (Remember the 1984 Olympics? I cleaned up with McDonald’s game for that!)
I’m thinking that they supply one with just enough money to buy, say an extra value meal. Or something edible atleast. They give you the dollar, and you figure, “Hey, I got the dollar right here. WHy not buy a soda?”
Either way, [hijack]How FRICKIN’ annoying is that radio advertisement for the stupid millionaire game? The one with the alarm clock going off. I have to get up to that sound every single day. Every *** damn day!! Do they really think that I want to hear that at work, or on the way to work? Or on the way home from work?"[/hijack]
That’s probably why this post is getting so few replies; people are just fed up with all the commercials and don’t want to have anything to do with the damn promotion. I’m a bit radio (and television) deprived so I guess my tolerance is a little higher. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the promotion.
I haven’t heard the promotion, but IMO that is the most annoying sound I have ever heard, and as soon as I get my five dollars I might have to start boycotting the promotion because of it.
I thought the game was one of the more fun scratch off games fast food places have run. I won a small drink or something lame, so I scratched off the rest of the prizes. There was only one cash prize for $3. The rest was free food.
Most of the prizes redeemed are for apple pies or something. We also get several $1, $2. $3, and $5 a night. Someone won $50, and I heard that a customer from another store won $100. Pretty decent prizes…
[hijack] Are there any stories from current/former McD.'s employees who have stories about customers who’ve scratched off more than one box (either in the answer column or for the prizes) who thought that their card was still valid?
I can just imagine something like:
Customer: “I want my free $5.00, please.”
Employee: “I’m sorry, but you’ve scratched off all the prize boxes…”
C: “Yeah, I wanted to see what I’ve won.”
E: “But you’re only supposed to scratch off one box…your card is invalid.”
C: “Huh? Oh, my kid scratched them all off…”
E: “I’m sorry.”
C: “What are you saying? I won $5.00…”
E: “I’m sorry, but your card is invalid…”
C: “It doesn’t say anything about scratching off one box…”
blahblahblah…I’m just wondering if anyone’s had problems with customers being as dense as concrete regarding the rules.[/hijack]
I never had a problem like that, although once an elderly man was crestfallen when we took the ticket away—he thought the coupon was perpetually valid until the end of the promotion.
Don’t know about this contest, because the only contests we had when I worked there were strictly chance: you peeled off your sticker and got what you got. But odds came into play there, too. The owner told us not to be bothered that we weren’t eligible, because “They printed one ticket for the million dollars, one for the car, and one for the vacation. Maybe twenty each for the stuff like the CD player, and a hundred for the $20. You could eat yourself to death trying to win, so don’t sweat it.”
So based on what’s said here, there does indeed seem to be one cash prize on every ticket, or maybe one on eight out of every ten. Still doesn’t mean anyone’s SD-cultivated knowledge is going to make them a millionaire.
The ones that drive me nuts are where you have to collect stuff, like the Monopoly pieces, or the Dick Tracy characters (remember that one?). Or the Pepsi “phrases” one. Or the Taco Bell Phantom Menace one. Where Mr. Rilch’s boss said he thought he had Anakin’s mom, the ungettable piece for the big-money prize…and since he and Mr. Rilch didn’t remember whose money had gotten which pieces, he’d split it with him, of course! So I spent an afternoon breathing very lightly…and it turned out he didn’t have Anakin’s mom, he had the Amidala-in-disguise character. Argh. But I never learn, I start right in again collecting the pieces for the next contest…
You know, one good thing that can be said about Carl’s Jr. is, they don’t have contests.
Yes I do remember the Dick Tracey game. I won $1000 dollars in it. I had one of those instant winners where you get a “mugshot” and you compare the picture to the wanted sign on the wall. My criminal corresponded to the guy over the $1000 prize. I have to admit I did not believe it. I took it up to the woman at the counter and she got all excited. The strange thing is I was eating with several female friends and I ordered last to be polite . . . nice little reward for having manners eh ? I was 18 at the time. The check came six weeks later and after taxes it was about $750. My parents gave me $200 to spend and the rest went to pay for my first year of college. I have never won anywhere close to that in any contest since. Guess that was my big prize for this lifetime.
I’ve only played the Millionaire game once, and I got my question wrong. Didn’t I feel dumb.
The only thing I’ve ever won in one of those contests was during the '84 Olympics, when won TWO Ataris! Our family actually already had one, so we ended up with three. (We gave the old one and one of the new ones away.) But that was the coolest thing ever, realizing that we had a winning game piece…and then realizing that we had TWO winning game pieces! Woo Hoo! U.S.A! U.S.A!
Don’t hold your breath hoping for the big prizes–unless you live in an area where McDonald’s sales are down.
It’s my understanding that McDonald’s assures that the best winning tickets are included in the lots that go to stores where sales are waning. They want the buzz of you hearing “Someone won $500 at the McDonalds RIGHT DOWN THE STREET!” to boost business. Obviously the game is meant to boost sales everywhere, but they also target the juiciest winning tickets so that they boost sales where they are most needed.
And it’s not really “rigged”–they don’t know which ticket is the winner. They just know that it’s in the lot headed to store X.
I don’t have a signed affidavit from a McDonald’s executive admitting this, mind you. But a friend who works for an accounting & consulting firm said this was the strategy.
Dammit! Our sales are up 26%…looks like I won’t be redeeming any million dollar prizes…
LOL, there’s this old guy that comes in every night to get more game pieces. He lieves by himself. Last night he bought 8 super sized fries. Damn, I hope he wins at least something…
LOL, I had this customer up in my face screaming at me because I wouldn’t accept it. She scratched off all the prizes, and tried to convince the counterperson that at other McD’s they just let the customer choose which prize they want. According to the employee guidelines, if you have a customer like that, you’re supposed to get the manager to deal with them. So Melissa calls me over, I tried explaining to her that the other stores were wrong in accepting them (or that she was lying…), and she started screaming that I was full of shit. Since the card was void, I threw it away. She kept insisting that it was her property, and I had no right to throw it away. Finally I got it off the top of the trashcan, gave it back to her, and she stormed out, screaming that she would never come back to our store again. What a loss…
