Competition Coupon Madness: Difference between revisions

* 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 [[wikipedia:Moers|Moers, Germany]].

* They still have these. [http://www.labelsforeducation.com/ Labels for Education], Coke Points/Pepsi Points, Camel Cash... A variation is/was [[wikipedia:Green stamps|"Green Stamps"]], which you could earn in several different places and then redeem for stuff.

* In 1999, California engineer [[wikipedia: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—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]]''.

 

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