My question is about those contests put on by candy bar makers, soda companies, etc where you must save wrappers or bottle caps to spell a word or create a phrase to win. How do these things work?
These are my theories:
-The company prints only one copy of one of the letters/words, so only one person wins. But it seems highly likely that the unique wrapper/bottle cap will get purchased and thrown away by a person who isn’t playing the game. What happens then?
-The company prints a small quantity of one of the letters/words, to increase the chances that someone playing the contest buys the limited wrapper/bottle cap. But what happens if two people end up winning the grand prize?
-Finally, the pessimistic side of me assumes all of these things are fixed, so it doesn’t really matter (which is why I usually throw away the wrapper/bottle cap), but legally that can’t be right.
Probably won’t help, but I can add a bit of an anecdote: Several years ago, I did actually manage to spell out whatever it was I was supposed to from candy bar wrappers, but it was all Halloween candy so I didn’t have the retail package, and I had no idea where to send them or what I’d won.
I can take a guess how it works, though. Let’s say that the winning phrase is, “You Win”. They print up a total of 1,561 copies of the letter “W” (say). Then, when you send in a complete set, they put your name in a drawing, and award 1 grand prize (One million dollars), 10 first prizes (A new SUV), 50 second prizes (a trip to Florida), 500 third prizes (a leather jacket), and a thousand fourth prizes (a free bag of candy). That way, they’re almost guaranteed to get rid of all of their major prizes, and the people who throw out the wrappers are just missing out on some free chocolate.
Note: The prizes and contest listed above are completely the product of my own imagination, and I’m not giving away leather jackets or anything else.
I always wondered about that myself until my mom actually won one of those contests. It was a contest by Special K cereal. You had to check the inside of the box for the instant win game piece. You know how they always say ‘Sorry, try again’? This one had a sticker stuck on top of that. They print all the boxes as losers, and put ‘Congratulations! You’re a winner!’ stickers on a few. If you read the terms and conditions carefully, they usually say that if there is no Grand Prize Winner the prize goes to charity, or a drawing is held.
My mom won some make up and beauty products, and a years supply of Special K.
Rose
The way I’ve always understood it is that there are thousands upon thousands of letters that are non-winners, and one copy of the “winning letter.” So, for instance, if you had to spell out “BOAT” to win a giant $2million yacht, they would pring 100,000 Bs, 100,000 As, 100,000 Ts, but only 1 O. Essentially, you’re the winner if you get the O…then it’s easy to buy 15 candy bars and you’ll probably get a B, A, and T. I’m sure that’s the way it works for McDonald’s Monopoly. Only 1 Boardwalk and half a million Park Places. (Some years they switch them). So don’t throw away the winning letter!
On a somewhat related topic:
I had a friend who SWORE that you could win a prize from the Monopoly game at McDonalds by just going to a different state. His theory was that all of the Boardwalks would be sent to the West coast, and all of the Park places would be sent to the East coaast. He figured if he put an add in the paper saying something like, “I have Boardwalk, give me Park Place and I’ll split the winning with you” some guy would have the other game piece, and they’d bot be rich.
I laughed no end at the poor guy. There’s only one winning sticker, and I believe that if you get it, you don’t have to bother looking for the other ones, you’re just an “instant winner”.
I can actually add a few facts to this. My company is regularly contracted by national corporations to place the winning game pieces in with the “commons” (that is the industry term for what lay men call the loosers!). What happens is we actually receive possesion of the winning game piece(s) and go to the printing company that is printing up the rest of the packaging. When we feel like it, we throw in a winner or two in with the rest. we then sign a form certifing that we put “X” number of winners in with the rest. This is all done to maintain the integrity of the contest.
One mistaken belief is that all prizes (including Grand Prizes) have to given away. Not so! In fact, most prizes are not ever claimed. People just throw these things in the trash without even looking at them, can you believe that?
In fact, the bigger prizes tend to get claimed the least.
Several years ago one client (a brewer of malt liquor) was giving out 5 brand new Cadillacs! We put in the winners for all 5. Only 3 were ever claimed! So if you drank malt liquor about 11 years ago…guess what you may have thrown out! :eek: