jgro@apldbio.com (Jeremy Grodberg) (09/23/90)
I went into McDonalds today for dinner (or breakfast, depending you how you look at it), and found more sleaze than usual there. It seems that McDonalds has figured out how to legally run a sweepstakes for profit, and once again 900 telephone service is the key. You can get a "McMillions on NBC" sweepstakes ticket for free, no purchase necessary, at any participating McDonalds. Then you watch for the winning number on NBC during a specified time. Although the number on my ticket is nine digits, I suspect that there are only a few numbers actually given out for a given time period. Anyway, they don't tell you what you have won, and to claim your prize you have to call a 900 number (75 cents per call) within about 20 hours. There is no way to claim your prize other than to call this 900 number. There is another 900 number (also 75 cents per call) which you can call to find out what the winning number is. The scummiest part of this scam is that having the winning number does not even mean that you have won *anything* but rather that you are a *potential winner*. As far as I am concerned, that makes this setup a clearly illegal gambling enterprise, where for 75 cents you might win a prize. However, I am not a lawyer, and I am sure McDonalds has checked with their lawyers and decided it was legal, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that they have found a valid loophole in the law. To me, this kind of thing is much more offensive than porn-by-phone, and is further evidence that the 900 services should be eliminated because they provide much more opportunity for abuse than the benefit they provide is worth. Major Disclaimer: I haven't read the official rules posted inside McDonalds, only the rules on the ticket, and have, of course, made some guesses about what is going on. Maybe there will be only one ticket with the winning number, the prize will be announced along with the number, and you will definitely win it if you call the 900 number within the time period specified, and they are saying you are a *potential* winner when the prize number is announced becuase you won't win the prize if you don't call. Still, if that is the case, they shouldn't make prize winners pay to claim their prizes, and I would suspect that they are only doing it so that a) they can get names and addresses to mail people "Free soft drink" coupons (and later other advertizing), or b) cash in on all the people who get confused by the rules (e.g. have a prize number for Monday's drawing, which loses, but wins a millon dollars on Tuesday). Any way you slice it, I think it is scummy for prize winners to have to pay to claim their prize, and I doubt that McDonalds would be doing it unless they were going to make money on it (or at least cover all their promotional and administrative costs for the sweepstakes, which means they'll get sweepstakes junkies, who are typically from the lower income brackets, to give McDonalds millions in free advertising). Jeremy Grodberg jgro@lia.com
vu0425@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Sanjay Hiranandani) (09/25/90)
In article <12535@accuvax.nwu.edu> Jeremy Grodberg <biosys!lia.com! jgro@cad.berkeley.edu> writes: >You can get a "McMillions on NBC" sweepstakes ticket for free, no >purchase necessary, at any participating McDonalds. Then you watch >for the winning number on NBC during a specified time. Although the >number on my ticket is nine digits, I suspect that there are only a >few numbers actually given out for a given time period. Anyway, they >don't tell you what you have won, and to claim your prize you have to >call a 900 number (75 cents per call) within about 20 hours. There is >no way to claim your prize other than to call this 900 number. There >is another 900 number (also 75 cents per call) which you can call to >find out what the winning number is. What's even scummier is that the ticket said that the numbers would be announced between 8-8:30pm EDT on NBC. However my local TV station that carries NBC didn't showit till 11:30. When I turned on my TV at 8, I didn't see anything about it till 8:15 ... when I saw a commercial that said it would be announced at 11:00 pm. At 11 pm nothing happened except the 11 pm WICZ 40 newscast. between 11 and 11:30 nothing was even mentioned about it during the commercial breaks. At 11:30, they briefly announced the number.
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) (09/26/90)
Jeremy Grodberg writes: > It seems that McDonalds has figured out how to legally run a sweepstakes > for profit, and once again 900 telephone service is the key. [...] > Any way you slice it, I think it is scummy for prize winners to have > to pay to claim their prize, and I doubt that McDonalds would be doing > it unless they were going to make money on it [...] I have no love of 900 numbers either, and I agree that charging $0.75 for the phone call to see if you've won is pretty low, but Jeremy isn't being entirely fair in his condemnation. My ticket back goes on to say: "net proceeds, if any, donated to Ronald McDonald Children's Charities (registered trademark)". It's still pretty low, but at least they aren't just pocketing the money. Then again, if they are soliciting money for their charity fund, why be so underhanded about it? Maybe that's not 100% fair either, since they do have plainly marked donation boxes on every counter, but I digress. The thing that gets me is the "if any" part. Obviously they are charging back against net profits some sort of costs. The cost of running the phone line? Printing the tickets? Advertising costs? Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy