Actually, she didn’t even win.
it would have made a stiff awards presentation.
Long time lurker. I registered to reference the “hold your pee for a wii” contest; however, I see I got beat to the punch by nearwildheaven and usedtobe. The only thing I have to add is that a jury awarded the family of the deceased $16 million in damages and 10 people at the radio station were fired for the stunt. They were warned multiple times that the stunt was potentially fatal yet they went through with it anyway.
I stand corrected.
Not to mention numbstruck.
Maybe you’re thinking of the guy who ate more than anyone else in a* cockroach eating contest*, and choked to death, while winning a pet python in the process.
Reminds me of the Hoover free flights promotion in the UK back in the 1990’s.
And this one broke my heart. It was pretty clear, I think, that this strategy wasn’t going to win anybody over, but I really, really wanted it to because I’m so very sick of all the complicated sale pricing gimmickry at the competitors. It’s borderline impossible to tell how much anything at Kohl’s costs.
Post #8
note to self - less skimming, more close reading.
Just to clarify, he did not accumulate 1.25 million dollars worth of airline miles. He accumulated 1.25 million airline miles. Airlines generally sell miles to sponsors of promotions for 2 to 2.5 cents each. So the miles cost ConAgra between $25,000 and $31,250. In return, they got a buttload of publicity (and are still getting some, as evidenced by this thread). I doubt anyone got fired.
$25,000 is nothing to a company like ConAgra so I really doubt anyone got into serious trouble over it let alone got fired.
There is another deal that still has consequences to this day for the company dumb enough to offer it. American Airlines once offered unlimited lifetime 1st class trips for $250,000 in the early 1980’s. If that sounds like a lot, it may be for you but it is an astoundingly incredible deal if you travel a lot for business or pleasure. It is essentially the same as having your own jet with crew especially back then when travel was easier. People took them up on it in large numbers and many of them abused the hell out of the system. The tickets had a stipulation for discount rates for a companion so many people just grabbed a stranger wanting to go on the same flight, gave them a discounted ticket and split the difference to make their money back. Some people were using theirs to fly to Europe and back just to check out that new restaurant that they read about, many of them hundreds or even thousands of flights just because they could.
Believe it or not, some people still hold those tickets to this day and they are still just as valid as they ever were but American desperately wants to destroy them. They have offered some of the holders more money than they paid for them in the first place (which is all kinds of awesome if you have one; 30+ years of free 1st class travel + PROFIT!). They have also initiated fraud investigations on many of the holders for violating some of the terms. American has been able to invalidate some of the tickets on those grounds but not all of them.
Next time you take an American flight, one of those people in 1st class may be just jetting off to Paris because…why not? They deserve it because they scored one of the best consumer deals of all time.
Small computer company that was my first programming job.
In 1981, just as the PC was coming out, they bought a company that sold electric typewriters. The kind that sold for several thousand dollars. Oh, and the guy who owned my company had a reputation as a sexist asshole (the one woman in the company had already sued his ass off for harassment and won - and was only staying to grind it in his face), so the moment the entirely female staff of the typewriter company found out that he bought it, they all quit enmasse. Only the manager remained, because apparently it was in the contract that she had to stay to help the transition.
But of all time, I have to go with the Time Warner/AOL Merger. That was fucking hilarious.
no, he was talking about this
There was an actual fad for eating baby food by adults?!?:dubious:
I am a few years away from feeding baby food to a baby but man, I can’t imagine any adult enjoying a steak dinner with veggie sides pureed and mixed together. The only reason babies are fed it is as a transition from breast/formula liquid diet to solids.
Part of the plot of “Punch Drunk Love,” that many people probably thought was made up for the film. Pretty good film; don’t let Adam Sandler put you off. Another point was that they barcoded the cups individually instead of per 6 pack (or however many).
The first portable PC was in a mini-tower case - lowering one side panel exposed the monitor, the other released the mouse and keyboard.
Sales went through the roof.
Until the founder let slip that he was working on a Model 2 which was going to be SO MUCH BETTER that people stopped buying Model 1, and the company folded.
Never compete with yourself…
About its owner, Lucent:
666 is also known as “the number of the beast”.
Wait, did I miss something? 77 posts, where is Bob?
Hiding behind Clippy.
Gerald Ratner’s infamous speech surely deserves a mention: