# Radio stunt...gone wrong? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827 "2013-09-27T18:42:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/21 "2013-09-28T07:29:16Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Couldn’t find a cite, but I remember years ago that another radio station put money in books on library shelves and announced it on the air. (They didn’t have permission from the staff, of course.) The idea was to promote reading, but dozens of people showed up and started throwing books around, looking for the cash. I can’t find a cite, either. It happened in my city, and I volunteered to help clean up the mess. And dear Og, it was quite a mess. The library staff was NOT happy about it. ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/22 "2013-09-28T12:39:50Z")
1. The stores are open to this sort of thing whether or not they condemn it. I’d agree it’s a good idea for them to say don’t do it. 2. It’s not product tampering, tampering requires intent to harm. 3. People aren’t buying eggs to get a prize, they’re buying eggs to get eggs. ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/23 "2013-09-28T18:12:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The basic idea is that somebody in the future could put something in the store’s products that they really didn’t want there - let’s say PETA leaflets. And knowing they wouldn’t get permission, PETA would intentionally not ask permission beforehand. Then when the leaflets were discovered and the stores complained about having them put there without permission, PETA would say “How could we know you wanted us to ask for permission? That radio station put stuff in your products without asking permission and you didn’t complain about them. So we figured it was okay.” Well sure, because the public like-factor for PETA pamphlets is exactly the same as it is for $100 bills. Worst case scenario isn’t always the most likely outcome, and a store could reasonably say yes to cash and no to nutball propaganda, even if they didn’t say yes to the cash idea beforehand. I think this is probably a one-off that turned out really well for a few people and will not cause any future nefarious shenanigans. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/24 "2013-09-28T20:17:15Z")
The OP would’ve gotten plane tickets and cash in his next box of granola bars, but nope, not anymore. See what happens if you’re all negative? The universe gets ya back. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/25 "2013-09-29T00:04:20Z")
The stunt went wrong for me. I drove 30 minutes into Salem earlier, where a storm is going on, to do some shopping at two stores. Didn’t find a single $100 bill! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/26 "2013-09-29T03:34:06Z")
The problem I have with the OP is that I don’t see the “gone wrong.” I don’t see any customers complaining… nor do I see any merchants complaining. If I open my egg carton and find a flyer with pictures of an aborted fetus I’d probably take it to management and complain. If I open it and find a C-Note I probably won’t be fussing too much. They aren’t breaking any of the safety seals… if I open my jar of peanut butter and find a $100 bill between the lid an the safety seal I will still feel fine to eat the peanut butter. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/27 "2013-09-29T12:59:37Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Couldn’t find a cite, but I remember years ago that another radio station put money in books on library shelves and announced it on the air. (They didn’t have permission from the staff, of course.) The idea was to promote reading, but dozens of people showed up and started throwing books around, looking for the cash. I remember that one, it was in Dallas/Fort Worth and I think the damages to books was in the thousands of dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/28 "2013-09-29T13:12:24Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#): > > I remember that one, it was in Dallas/Fort Worth and I think the damages to books was in the thousands of dollars. Here’s the story [http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/07/us/cash-in-the-library-not-a-total-fiction.html](http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/07/us/cash-in-the-library-not-a-total-fiction.html) "Fort Worth’s public library was in a shambles today after a local radio station announced it had hidden $5 and $10 bills in books in the fiction section and urged listeners to go search for the cash. More than 500 people stampeded through the Fort Worth Central Library on Tuesday evening looking for the money after the publicity stunt by KYNG-FM, a Dallas-based country radio station." ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/29 "2013-09-29T17:04:32Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I’m thinking that once word gets around, tons of homeless people will be going into the stores and opening everything that can be opened, looking for money, and probably rendering lots of stuff unfit for sale. Do homeless people have radios? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/30 "2013-09-29T18:21:05Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Do homeless people have radios? Why not? Used to be a homeless guy in my area who spent his days sitting in the parking lot at Walgreen’s with his boom box. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/31 "2013-09-29T18:39:34Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Do homeless people have radios? Lots of them do in my area. Some have de-activated cell phones that work as FM radios, too. Some have a radio with speaker (instead of earbuds), and hang out in groups passing time with the radio on. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/32 "2013-09-29T23:03:12Z")
> [@moejoe](#): > > I think this is probably a one-off that turned out really well for a few people and will not cause any future nefarious shenanigans. Are you kidding? Just in this thread we’ve already seen how this thing has sparked all sorts of ideas for nefarious shenanigans. Allowing this incident to pass without comment/action sets a very very bad precedent. It may not be dangerous product tampering, but it IS tampering. Now in this case, the stores could simply make public statements saying “We ask that the radio station stop doing this as we consider it product tampering. Any similar stunts in the future will result in legal action.” The radio station could respond with “Sorry, we didn’t see it that way but we hear you. We’ll stop now.” The stores would have officially condemned it, the radio station wouldn’t get in trouble for what was an ill-thought out but well-meant stunt, and balance would be restored to the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/33 "2013-09-30T17:04:39Z")
I’m not sure the legal system offers definitive guidance here on the risks of failing to condemn. This is not my area of law, I’ll state at the outset, so I welcome correction from someone who knows the issues better than I. There are plenty of analogues to **Czarcasm** ’s concept. A property owner who fails to object to people he knows are using his property can find himself with an easement he never wanted. A trademark owner who permits an infringing use to occur can find he’s lost the right to enforce. The entire doctrine of _laches_ revolves around the idea that if you fail to speak up when you need to, you can lose the right to speak up later. But I’m not sure those lessons are precisely applicable here. I think a store could make a case that they didn’t mind the $100 bills but they don’t want the Jehovah’s Witness pamphlets or the Chick Tracts, and reasonably argue that US currency is different enough from other material that they weren’t waiving any rights by permitting (or by failing to timely object) to the cash. Still, lawyers are risk-averse. The clear best option for the store is to register objections just on the off-chance that they might be waiving some future right, I’d guess. If nothing else, that could save them a trial, by converting an issue of fact into a dismissible suit. And even if that’s a trial they’d be virtually guaranteed to win, it’s much much better to avoid the trial completely. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/34 "2013-09-30T17:24:01Z")
What about the aspect of the store owners/managers letting people slip things into products without permission of the product’s manufacturers? Even if a seal isn’t broken, could there be a problem? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/35 "2013-09-30T20:17:40Z")
I’d say the biggest radio stunt gone wrong is the one where a woman died of water intoxication after a ‘drink the most water without going to the bathroom’ stunt. The prize was a Nintendo wii. ---
**Author:** ![want2befree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@want2befree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2befree)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/36 "2013-09-30T20:56:45Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > I’d say the biggest radio stunt gone wrong is the one where a woman died of water intoxication after a ‘drink the most water without going to the bathroom’ stunt. The prize was a Nintendo wii. O man, Antinor, you beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/37 "2013-09-30T21:13:17Z")
[A few more stupid radio stunts.](http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/aa071903a.htm) ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827/38 "2013-09-30T23:06:05Z")
From **Czarcasm’s** link: > [@](#): > > Helen Terry spent 3 months in a hospital for severe frostbite to her buttocks after participating in the “2001 Coolest Seats in Town”. Three months in a hospital for frostbite on the ass. That is seriously messed up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stunt-gone-wrong/669827.md?page=1)