…When you could just fucking WIN something without having to first go to Coke or whatever.ca with your “access code” eagerly held in your sweaty hand and then find out Oh! BTW! To access the slim chance of actually winning something, you have to first register (because I really want to register to be part of a fucking junk food website) and divulge all of my personal information! Why can’t they just go back to the good old days when you could just peel that little bastard of a plastic circle from inside the cap of your pop or what have you and BAM instant winner! Ima go back and get me another bottle ‘o sugar water GRATIS. That’s one of the few things I like about Timmie’s; you can actually roll up the rim and win without having to fucking run home and fire up the internets.
—Turning into my Parents
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.
Right on!!!
I figure the move toward this kind of promotion has many benefits to the seller and very few to the buyer. First, they get your e-mail address. Second, they get to find out what you like, based on what you buy with your coke points from their website so their partners can hound you via your e-mail address to buy more of their junk. Third, you have to go to their website which will be full of other promotional and advertising goodness. And finally, those without internet or those who can’t be bothered to use it or those smart enough/paranoid enough not to register with their website will never have to be given any of the “free” product.
Meanwhile, I long for the good old days of stickers in my chip bags and free pops under my caps.
The best was when Pepsi was doing the win under the cap thing, but you could just look at a certain angle and see which ones were winners, I won on almost every single one by doing that. Until the store staff figured out what you were doing and yelled at you. That was when you didn’t even need a dime to pay the deposit on a free pop.
i agree fuck coke.ca
The Canada Privacy Act limits how companies can collect on any individual, so companies are now finding intuitive ways of collecting data. What’s really interesting is that the Act that controls prize winnings (incidentally, this is the same act that requires us to pass a skill testing question each time we win a prize) hasn’t been changed since the 60’s when it was enacted… That piece of legislation actually requires us to do the same thing (full name, address, DOB and Phone number) that they are requesting now, it’s just that the retailer just used to put dummy info on it (store address, John Smith, etc) but the Privacy Act forbids falsification of information by said companies (it’s a Identity Theft measure). It’s not the companies fault; it’s a legislation issue. That said, they’re not allowed to hold onto your information if you issue a letter stating directly that you don’t wish your information to be used in such a fashion. Or better yet, don’t enter!
Nice post Dr. Fever 🙂 I feel very informed.
This is one of my pet peeves though, I was thinking about it just the other day.