Every so often you hear about contests in which one of the prizes is a lifetime supply of something or other, usually, I would think, a product the contest sponsor sells.
What the heck is a lifetime supply? Does it vary by contest or product? Is the winner’s age accounted for? How would one calculate a lifetime supply of Twinkies or toilet paper or golf balls. As to golf balls, for example, my brother can go a week of Sundays playing the same ball, whereas I rarely go more than a few holes without losing one.
Does the winner go out and buy the product and then submit receipts for reimbursement? Is it prohibited to buy 10,000 rolls of toilet peper and sell 'em on eBay?
I’m certain that the term ‘lifetime supply’ does not mean ‘unlimited’ supply (or you’d in effect become the company CEO!), so I’m sure that each manufacturer has some credible basis on how much a person could reasonably be expected to use each day, and calculates out from that. I bet it is always hedged to the low end, and you can bet that the amounts vary widely from item to item.
WAG: They base “lifetime supply” on average criteria – average age, average height/weight, average product usage over a specific period of time by said average person, etc. In the case of foodstuffs they likely base usage (consumption) on “serving size” being that this would define how much the average person would consume in one sitting (which is usually an absurdly low amount.)
As for how it is supplied to the consumer – manufacturer’s coupons, most likely.
I once entered lots of sweepstakes. In the ones that gave away a year’s supply or a lifetime supply, the rules were specific about just what that meant. It didn’t matter if you had fourteen kids and used boxcars of paper towels, you won what the rules said you won.
Not quite off-topic: I saw the fine print (on TV) for some giveaway involving gasoline in a recent come-on. There was a dollar amount in the $2,300 range which led me to think they would spring for a tank a week at roughly current prices. So the “Free Gas For A Year” label was at least misleading.
It seems to vary by company etc that is offering the promotion, such as in this one… http://www.sillyputty.com/silly_contest/usa/usarules.htm . They define lifetime supply as being one silly putty egg per month till the winners 72nd birthday. Others I’ve seen tend to be more non-specific as to exactly what they mean by lifetime supply.
Was it BP (the gas station chain) who ran the contest? I recently heard a radio ad for a contest they were running. One of the top prizes was “free gasoline for a year.” The legalese at the end of the ad mentioned that this prize would be awarded as a gift card with a couple thousand dollars on it. I presume that this amount is based on the average person’s gasoline usage.
If the card has $2300 on it, then that works out to $44.23 per week. A pretty decent allowance in my book.
Any competition I’ve ever seen offering “lifetime supply” prizes has always carefully described exactly what this amounts to somewhere in the small print.
Best I can recall, it was more a car company commercial, although it may have been one of the local TV channels plugging something of theirs.
I agree that $44 a week for gas would work for me. I have started driving so little that I can go weeks on a tank of gas, which I refuse to pay over $20 for at a time, even when gas was near $3 per gallon.
I saw a ‘free gas’ offer if you bought a certain car. You get $2200 in gas money.
Even when I was commuting at the height of recent gas prices, I spent $20-22 a week. That’s still only $1200 or so. Of course, I’m pretty sure the gas offer was for an SUV, so the $2200 wouldn’t cover 6 months.
