Have you been craving sugary, candy-colored, magical food items since the Unicorn Frappuccino went away? General Mills has some good news: In a promotion, it will be giving away thousands of Lucky Charms boxes that contain only dehydrated marshmallows, fulfilling a fantasy that many people have had while intoxicated. But getting one of these rare boxes of cereal won’t be as special as it was the first time — and there are much easier ways to eat a bowl of hard, candy-colored marshmallows. [More]
contests
Man Gets Hypothermia Hiking Snow-Covered Mountain In Shorts, Trying To Score Free Pizza
By 5.11.17
If a pizza place is offering free food to people who can hike or bike their way up a snow-covered mountain, you have to ask yourself: Is the pizza really free? And if you’re one Arizona man who had to be rescued while trying to cash in on this promotion, you’re probably wondering: Why did I wear shorts? [More]
Winner Of The Jet Signup Contest Spent $18K On Ads, Prize Now Worth Millions
By 8.8.16
Back at the beginning of 2015, before it launched to the public, e-commerce site Jet used a contest to encourage people to refer others to the site. The winner was a Pennsylvania man who spent $18,000 on online ads, recruiting new Jet users through sites like Facebook and Swagbucks. He received 100,000 shares in the company, which he couldn’t cash in until the company went public or were sold. Today, the company announced that Walmart acquired it for $3.3 billion. [More]
TV Stations & Radios Can Now Just Tell You To Go Online For Contest Rules
By 9.17.15
In 1976, the Federal Communications Commission adopted the so-called “Contest Rule,” which sought to increase transparency in on-air contests by requiring that TV and radio broadcasters disclose the terms of the contest over the air. And even though there have been huge technological and cultural changes in the nearly 40 years since, allowing shows to also put their rules online, broadcasters must still explain them on air. That’s about to change. [More]
App Called RoboKiller Takes Top Prize In FTC’s Anti-Robocall Contest
By 8.17.15
The Federal Trade Commission’s vendetta against robocalls continued today as the agency announced the winner of a contest – and $25,000 – for building an app that blocks and forwards the annoying calls. [More]
Create A Delicious Dessert, Win California Woman’s $390K Home
By 7.21.15
In the latest string of popular “create something, win huge reward” contests, a California woman is offering up her refurbished 1906 Craftsman home — valued at $390,000 — to the person who can come up with a winning dessert recipe. [More]
Here We Go Again: Bakery Owner Selling Business For $75, An Essay & A Cupcake Recipe
By 5.11.15
There’s a new bandwagon rolling through the country and it’s only gaining more riders: After the owner of a Maine inn became the darling of the viral news cycle by offering up her establishment to the winner of an essay contest, a goat cheese farm and now a bakery have chosen to use her method of finding the ideal person to take over their business. [More]
Write An Essay, Win A Mortgage-Free Goat Cheese Farm With 85 Goats In Alabama
By 5.1.15
If there are two things we’ve discovered people really and truly go bonkers for, it’s writing competitions that reap rewards of property for the winner and goats performing jobs. Those two topics have come together in the story of an Alabama couple holding an essay-writing contest to decide who will win their fully functional, mortgage-free goat cheese farm — including its resident goat population of 85. [More]
What It’s Like To Run Through A Toy Store And Grab Whatever You Want
By 4.7.15
Winning the chance to run through a toy store as a kid and grab anything and everything your heart could desire, Nickelodeon’s Super Toy Run was the epitome of luck, making the show’s winners the subject of intense envy back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. So what was it like to live the dream? [More]
Maine Innkeeper Who Won 210-Year-Old Inn With An Essay Is Offering Potential Owners The Same Chance
By 3.9.15
If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own country inn, tucked away somewhere in Maine with all that entails, you don’t need a huge bank account or a surprise inheritance from a distant relative to make that dream come true: The owner of a 210-year-old inn in Maine is offering up the place for just $125 — to the person who submits a winning essay. [More]
Krispy Kreme Makes Homer Simpson Jealous, Delivers Massive Box Of 2,400 Doughnuts
By 9.23.14
So you picked up a dozen tasty doughnuts for the office this morning; that probably made you feel like a pretty good co-worker, right? Well Krispy Kreme officially put your measly 12 toruses of delicious dough to shame, by delivering a single, gigantic box of 2,400 doughnuts to a public relations firm in the United Kingdom. [More]
Taco Bell, Where A “Lifetime Of Food” Costs Just $10,000
By 8.27.14
What would you say if someone told you the rest of your meals for your entire life were covered? Great, right? But could you buy a “lifetime” of food for $10,000? Maybe at Taco Bell, as the chain’s new “Eleven Everlasting Dollars” contest claims each winner will win free Taco Bell food for life. [More]
Domino’s And Contest Winner Disagree About How Calendars Work
By 6.2.14
This baseball season, Domino’s Pizza is running a promotion where fans can get a code for a free pizza after the first two no-hitters of the year. While many people were shut out of the code-generating website, reader Jim wasn’t one of them. He got a code. The problem is that he and Domino’s disagree about how calendars work, and now he has no free pizza. [More]
General Mills’ New Policy: If You Engage With Us Online, You Can Never Sue The Company
By 4.17.14
Companies want customers to engage with them online as if they’re just another pal on Facebook or Twitter, one that can offer downloadable coupons and promote contests with attractive prizes. But in new language recently added to General Mills’ website, consumers who interact with the company online will be agreeing to give up the right to sue the company in the future. [More]
Woman Wins $5,000 Diamond Prize, Finds Out After Accidentally Swallowing It
By 4.30.13
A fundraiser event in Tampa was sort of a boozy raffle. Guests could pay $20 for a flute of champagne with a clear gemstone at the bottom. Everyone got to drink champagne, and one lucky guest won a diamond worth $5,000. The 80-year-old winner didn’t have to worry about finding a safe place to store the stone on her way home, because she had accidentally swallowed it. [More]
Alamo Drafthouse Giving Everyone Chance To Make Their Own “Shut Up, Stop Texting & Watch The Movie” PSA
By 10.25.12
The Alamo Drafthouse chain of movie theaters has long had a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to texting and talking on the phone during a film, as commemorated in maybe the greatest anti-texting PSA ever. Now the company is asking you to unleash that annoyed auteur that’s dying to get out and tell people to shut the &*#( up. [More]
Males And Adult Women Don’t Want To Meet One Direction? Well, Probably Not
By 10.16.12
Do you have an overwhelming desire to meet the band members of One Direction? Me either. And if you’re male or 30 or older, you probably aren’t in the band’s main demographic anyway. But Victor questions a contest run by Seventeen magazine to meet the band members of One Direction that excludes all females ages 30 and over and all males. [More]
SiriusXM Takes Away Free Subscriptions From People Who Didn’t Win Them, Internet Is Outraged
By 10.9.12 — Updated: 1.28.13
If you get something free under false pretenses, then the company contacts you to take away your prize, have you really lost anything at all? That existential question is brought to you by SiriusXM. Back during this year’s Super Bowl, the satellite radio monolith took part in a Chevy sweepstakes, giving away 375 one-year Internet subscriptions. That winners’ link and promo code circulated on deals sites and blogs a few weeks ago, and someone forgot to turn it off, meaning that a whole lot more than 375 winners used it to get free subscriptions. [More]
