Junk Food Sweepstakes

[Linkrulezall]

All the time I see these contests printed on the packages for snack foods like Cheetos, Fruit By The Foot, etc. in the grocery store. You know, the kind of thing where you look inside the box and they say you haven't won and should buy more of whatever you just ate? I remember when I was a kid I actually thought I could win one of those, and that got me thinking. I've never met a single person who won one of those things, not even someone who knew someone who had a friend who won one of those things.

So, have any of you either won one of those junk food sweepstakes or known someone that has?

[Enjay]

Never met anyone who won big but these things often have minor (non) prizes, like another packet of the same food for free or a sample of another product from the same manufacturer or something so crappy you can't even be bothered to claim it, and I've gotten a few of those like I guess most people have.

[Doomkid]

What are you on about, John and Jane Doe win em all the time! That's how come they keep running them :)

[AndrewB]

The latest thing is to fill out a survey which enters you in a contest to win some ridiculously awesome prize. The catch is that your chances of winning are 1000x more ridiculously bad than the prize is good.

For example, fill out this survey for a chance to win a $2000 store gift card. It takes 5 minutes of your time to do it, and the chances of winning are about 1 in 100 thousand. In terms of value, that's about 2 cents you're being paid, or about 25 cents per hour.

Would a person fill out a five minute survey if you offered them 2 pennies? No, they'd say go to hell. But tell them they're entered to win $2000 and half of them will say OK.

Tl;dr, people are bad with numbers, especially big numbers, and companies take advantage of this.

[Maes]

Heh, this reminded me about some American girl which had won literally hundreds of such competitions, by always signing up for all that she could.

[Enjay]

AndrewB said:

Would a person fill out a five minute survey if you offered them 2 pennies? No, they'd say go to hell. But tell them they're entered to win $2000 and half of them will say OK.

And that's how things like lotteries get customers too.

"Your chance of winning is less than the chance of being struck by lightning - twice. You gonna play?"

"Er, no"



"If you win, the prize will be millions and will change your life forever. You gonna play?"

"Hell yeah!"

[Cupboard]

Maes said:

Heh, this reminded me about some American girl which had won literally hundreds of such competitions, by always signing up for all that she could.

It is pretty common to read in local US newspapers about people (women usually) who collect coupons to redeem @ grocery store or mall-type department store. Those stories are a lot more common. These people always end up saving over a couple hundred dollars on their bill. But it's because they play the field and understand the fine art of haggling.

[Captain Toenail]

I won a Lucozade sports bag, but the buggers never sent it to me!