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I wonder if this is a third-world thing, soda contests for cash.

I remember when I was 12 in Bolivia, we had literal Coca Cola scratch off cards and had to collect bottle caps with the numbers to make a lot of cash. Kids would trade bottle caps, rumors floated about fulanito having the rare cap and he would sell it for the right amount, etc.

Been in the states for a few years now and never heard of something like that here. Then again I haven't had soda in the same amount of time.



When it debuted, McDonald's "Monopoly" game was a huge deal and people would eagerly open their tickets to see if they won a big prize. If they won it was usually a small fries or another ticket, but sometimes it was some money and one person won $1M.

After a while the luster wore off and it faded into the background. I'm sure it boosted sales in its first few years quite a bit but now you hardly hear about it. I'm actually surprised it still happens.


I don't think it "wore off" or "faded into the background". The operation was fraud, at least in the US & Canada

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Fraud


Well it didn’t start with fraud, back in ‘87.


I'm also surprised that it still happens, considering there was major fraud from an internal actor to claim the highest-paying prizes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Fraud


I mean, it was also kind of a giant fraud (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Fraud), which may have contributed to it being less of a big thing these days.


It's still a thing with Tim Hortons' "Roll up the rim to win" campaign, where you can win money, cars, barbecue grills, dougnnuts, or coffee when you buy a coffee.

Actually, it was cancelled this year, because millions of people handing pieces of coffee cup rims to workers isn't good when there's a global pandemic going on.


It wasn't cancelled, it was just moved to their app. When you scanned your card/phone you would get credits to "roll up". I only realized when I opened the app (instead of using mobile wallet) and saw I had 25 "roll ups" to use.


It's not a physical thing though. It's just another form of virtual points.


I think there is a documentary out now about how that whole thing was gang controlled haha. Havent watched, not sure if i believe, but wouldnt be that far fetched.


I think it might just be a 90s thing. I remember similar promotions in Ireland when I was a kid, but they don't seem to be a thing anymore.


We used to have those kinds of bottle cap for cash contests in the US, I think it was most common in the late 90s and early 00s.




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