If I want an activity, I prefer the “light the oily rag and drop it in the trash in the bathroom” game.
Duh! :rolleyes:
Haven’t you ever seen Willy Wonka?
Based on a true story. It’s why they don’t allow computer facimilies of entry forms anymore.
I’ve definitely won free “food” from it. And in the early '90s, homeless people in New Orleans seemed to be sustaining themselves on proceeds from the contest.
I won $30 from a 20 ounce Coke once. The odds were 1 in 100,000. They sent me an ATM card-type-thing to get the cash.
The fillet o fish.
Bah, but now they don’t announce you’re a winner–they give you some freakin code that I have to enter into their website, which I have to register with first and…there the cap goes into the trash.
A classmate of mine in high school won a new Jeep from the first McDonald’s Monopoly. And that was in Hawaii, too.
EpicNonsense, maybe you should frequent the McD’s over at Windward Mall.
FWIW all of the donations to charities for big companies are kind of scams too. They set up a specific amount they are going to donate no matter how many box tops/yogurt lids/points off the back of a package get sent in and then they advertise that they will donate “up to $X,XXX” based on the number of stuff they receive back from consumers. There is no need to buy something you don’t really want because it will support breast cancer or the boys and girls club of america or anything. They get all the money whether or not you spend a dime.
One time I opened a bottle of Mountain Dew and got “you’re a winner!” on the inside cap. I called the number and heard, “this promotion ended two months ago.”
I always wondered what I would have won, and whether they deliberately send out the winning bottles after the contest is over.
I once managed to spell out the prize word (including the rare letter) from the wrappers of M&M/Mars candy bars in my Halloween candy. But it was a couple of months after the fact that I got the last one, and all of those packages were gone from the stores by then, so I didn’t know what I would have won or how to claim whatever it was.
A selection of winners culled from the news.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/how-i-won-1-million-by-eating-breakfast,569532.shtml
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-16998543.html
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-16890765.html
I decided that this is the last year I’m really going to play. It’s not worth it to go out of my way to get the morning hash brown (best deal, 2 hashbrowns for $1 which gets you 4 game pieces) order and try to eat lunch there. Especially as the menu selection is pretty piss poor this year. It’s not like I really expect to win the million, it’s more that I’ve never hit any of the other prizes either. What, you can’t throw me a Short Line or a Vermont Avenue?
Although I can buy all the crappy Foot Locker stuff I want with a 25% discount.
Can I ask you something? What was the thought process going on in your head that made you use an apostrophe to indicate the plural in BigMacs and Sodas, but not in Fries, Hashbrowns, items or pieces? 
That’s always been my suspicion. It seems like an asshole thing for Company X to say, “Gee, we’ve got a spare $100,000 to donate to prevent cancer in retarded baby dolphins but we only got $2,500 worth of lids. Guess we’ll just throw the rest out!”
I wonder how much money was spent on postage and envelopes that could have been used for something useful but was instead used to mail trash to yoplait.
I have heard that when an employee gets the winning piece, (and so can’t collect it themselves), they will often donate it to charity so that McDonalds doesn’t get to keep it. Anyone else heard that before or know if it’s true. Does that make sense?
Thanks!
I don’t have a cite, but why wouldn’t you just pass it on to a trusted friend who IS eligible?
There’s really no way to tell.
I won one free hour of WiFi at McDonald’s by entering the codes on the pieces into their website and landing on Free Parking.
It would be a better gift if I didn’t have to use it by 1/17/09. A free hour of WiFi would be quite useful on, say, a summer road trip. I’m not sure when I’ll just happen to be hanging around McDonald’s with my laptop this time of year.