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Competition Coupon Madness: Difference between revisions

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Competition Coupon Madness (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:boxtopscutout_9190boxtopscutout 9190.jpg|frame|Behold the power of boxtops!]]
 
 
{{quote|Our lieutenant is the up-and-coming type.<br />
Played with soldiers as a boy you just can bet.<br />
It is written in the stars<br />
He will get his captain's bars,<br />
But he hasn't got enough box tops yet.|'''[[Tom Lehrer]]''', "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier"}}
 
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Compare and contrast [[Free Prize At the Bottom]].
{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Comic Books ==
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== Film ==
* In ''[[A Christmas Story]]'', Ralphie collects label after label from containers of Ovaltine, coming to hate the stuff, but drinking it anyway because he knows if he collects enough labels he'll get that coveted [[Little Orphan Annie (Comic Strip)|Little Orphan Annie]] decoder ring. When he finally gets the ring and decodes the secret message, he discovers that the message reads: {{spoiler|Be sure to drink your Ovaltine}}.
 
 
== Literature ==
 
* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''[[Have Space Suit WillSuit—Will Travel]]'': Clifford Russell enters a Skyway Soap contest with the grand prize of a trip to the Moon. Each soap wrapper sent in counts as an entry. He wins a used spacesuit, and as a result ends up going on an adventure that takes him to the Moon...and beyond.
* In the Dorothy Sayers novel ''[[Lord Peter Wimsey|Murder Must Advertise]]'', Lord Peter Wimsey comes up with a marketing campaign based on this scheme while working undercover in an advertising agency.
 
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== Video Games ==
 
* In ''[[Ace Attorney Investigations]]'', Colias Palaeno, the Ambassador of Babahl, keeps handing out coupons in order to drum up tourism -- theytourism—they can only be redeemed in Babahl.
{{quote| '''Palaeno:''' Would you like some more ink? I've got plenty!<br />
'''Edgeworth:''' Ah...thank you, I shouldn't need any more.<br />
'''Palaeno:''' Oh...in that case, let me make it up to you with some coupons!<br />
'''Edgeworth:''' I-I have plenty of those, too! ''(Where is he conjuring them up from?!)'' }}
 
 
 
== Western Animation ==
 
* Just a throw-in joke and not a story line, but here's an obligatory ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|Simpsons]]'' example:
{{quote| '''Bart:''' Nice jacket!<br />
'''Milhouse:''' Thanks, it cost me 50,000 Bazooka Joe comics! }}
* In "Girl of Steal" from ''[[My Life As a Teenage Robot (Animation)|My Life Asas a Teenage Robot]]'', the [[Cool Toy]] is the Musique. Tucker wants one so badly that he steals box tops from everybody in the neighborhood then brings them to the Musique store and has a fit when the store manager tells him he has to send the box tops in and wait for the Musique to arrive in the mail.
* In the ''[[Angry Beavers]]'' episode "Box Top Beavers", Dag picks brands of cereal that have cheap toys in the box, while Norb picks brands of cereal that give you cool toys for sending in the box tops. When Dag decides to go for the cool prize (a ''[[Refuge in Audacity|street sweeper]]''), and finally finishes eating 10,000 boxes of cereal, he finds out that the sponsors have discontinued the promotion, and the brothers infiltrate the factory to get the prize.
* An episode of ''[[The Raccoons]]'' has Bert attempting to win a bike by putting together a jigsaw puzzle from pieces that come in a brand of crisps (not knowing that [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Cyril Sneer]] deliberately left out one piece of the puzzle so no one can win). [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* On ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'', Boris and Natasha produce counterfeit box tops to get all the prizes and undermine the world's economy. [[General Mills]] (which not only sponsored the show, but owned it outright) was not amused and forced the producers to [[Aborted Arc|end the story earlier than planned]].
** The drama in that arc is that Bullwinkle had an impossible number of ''legit'' box tops because he 'couldn't decide what to get.'
* ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'' had our titular character devouring 100 boxes of Kelpo Krunch practically all at one sitting, all in order to get the box tops needed to send in for a free toy. He then realizes he didn't necessarily have to eat ''all'' the cereal in the aforementioned boxes.
* In ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'', Arnold and Gerald need to collect 50 cereal box coupons to earn a children's telescope so they can see an upcoming passing comet. Since they collected half of the coupons, they invite their friends and neighbors for the remaining cereal.
 
== Real Life ==
 
* Burma-Shave once offered a mock promotion that promised a trip to Mars for anyone who collected 900 empty jars. When Arlyss French, a grocery store owner, managed to actually collect them, Burma-Shave responded, "If a trip to Mars you earn/Remember, friend, there's no return." After French collected another 900 jars for the return trip, they decided to go ahead and send him to [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moers |Moers, Germany]].
* They still have these. [http://www.labelsforeducation.com/ Labels for Education], Coke Points/Pepsi Points, Camel Cash... A variation is/was [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_stamps:Green stamps|"Green Stamps"]], which you could earn in several different places and then redeem for stuff.
* Similarly, Marlboro cigarettes had such a promotion all the way up through [[The Nineties]], which offered Marlboro-branded gear and clothing in exchange for tops from its cigarette packs. It was discontinued after accusations arose that it was intended at least in part as a stealth campaign to encourage teen smoking.
* In 1999, California engineer [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Phillips_:David Phillips (entrepreneur) |David Phillips]] did the math and found that a particular promotion, in which a food company offered airline frequent flyer miles in exchange for inexpensive food purchases, was a phenomenally good value. For about $3000, he was able to buy enough pudding to redeem for over a million airline miles--enoughmiles—enough to fly just about anywhere, first class, dozens of times over. And he donated the food to charity, ''and'' he got an $800 tax break for the donation.
** This story was used for the movie ''[[Punch -Drunk Love]]''.
* Up until 2012, [[w:Bazooka (chewing gum)|Bazooka brand bubble gum]] included small comic strips with each piece of individually-wrapped gum which also had premium offers on them, as seen [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazooka_Joe#/media/File:Bazooka_Joe.gif on this sample]. Typically each premium could be acquired for several hundred comics, or for a small fee plus a token number of comics.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Competition Coupon Madness{{PAGENAME}}]]
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