History Main / CompetitionCouponMadness

There are promotions in RealLife by companies that work like this: On each package of the product there's a coupon, you collect X coupons, send them in, and win a prize. X may be a reasonable number, but can also be ridiculously high. Often used to gauge and improve customer loyalty. A common marketing trick.

Sometimes, this works like a lottery: Your chance of winning increases if you send in more coupons.

[[AC: ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* In the Dorothy Sayers novel ''[[LordPeterWimsey Murder Must Advertise]]'', Lord Peter Wimsey comes up with a marketing campaign based on this scheme while working undercover in an advertising agency.

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: {{Music}}]]

[[AC: NewspaperComics]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:RealLife]]

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* In an episode of [[Victorious]], the main characters buy a ridiculous amount of ice cream, in order to win a free Ke$ha concert.

* In an episode of '''Victorious''', the main characters buy a ridiculous amount of ice cream, in order to win a free ''Ke$ha'' concert.

* In an episode of ''Victorious'', the main characters buy a ridiculous amount of ice cream, in order to win a free ''Ke$ha'' concert.

* RobertHeinlein's ''Have Space Suit - 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.

* An episode of BritCom ''The Worker'', starring Charlie Drake, has his character buying hundreds of boxes of cereal so he can find a GoldenTicket to a prize contest. He then spends weeks training for the contest until he's fully confident of winning [[spoiler:but shows up on the wrong day]].

* In the Dorothy Sayers novel ''Murder Must Advertise'', Lord Peter Wimsey comes up with a marketing campaign based on this scheme while working undercover in an advertising agency.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boxtopscutout_9190.jpg
[[caption-width:320:Behold the power of boxtops!]]

There are promotions in RealLife by companies that work like this: each package of the product there's a coupon, you collect X coupons, send them in, and win a prize. X may be a reasonable number, but can also be ridiculously high. Often used to gauge and improve customer loyality. A common marketing trick.

Sometimes, this works like a lottery, your chance of winning increases if you send in more coupons.

In fiction the first prize is something the protagonist really wants; like an all-inclusive holiday in Hawaii for the whole family. HilarityEnsues when:

* The protagonist going to extreme measures to acquire yet another pack of the product when he finds out he has exactly 9999 coupons and needs ten thousand of them.

* An episode of UK SitCom ''The Worker'' starring Charlie Drake has his character buying hundreds of boxes of cereal so he can find a GoldenTicket to a prize contest. He then spends weeks training for the contest until he's fully confident of winning [[spoiler:but shows up on the wrong day]].

* In "Girl of Steal" from ''MyLifeAsATeenageRobot", the CoolToy 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.

* On ''RockyAndBullwinkle'', 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 [[AbortedArc end the story earlier than planned]].

[[AC: {{Film}}]]
* The golden tickets in ''CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''.

There are promotions in RealLife by companies that work like this: each package of the product there's a coupon, you collect X coupons, send them in, and win a prize. X may be a reasonable number, but can also be ridicilously high. Often used to gauge and improve customer loyality. A common marketing trick.

* The protagonist going to extreme measures to acquire yet another pack of the product when he finds out he has exactly 9999 coupons and needs ten thousand ones.

* In the ''AngryBeavers'' 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, 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.

* Seen several times in DonaldDuck comics, incl. one DonRosa story.

* RobertHeinlein's ''Have Space Suit - 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 ''Murder Must Advertise'' Lord Peter comes up with a marketing campaign based on this scheme while working undercover in an advertising agency.

[[AC: Newspaper Comics]]

[[AC: Western Animation]]

-->'''Bart''': Nice jacket!
-->'''Milhouse''': Thanks, it cost me 50 thousand Bazooka Joe comics!
* In "Girl of Steal" from ''MyLifeAsATeenageRobot" the CoolToy is the Musique. Tucker wants one so badly that he steals boxtops 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 boxtops in and wait for the Musique to arrive in the mail.
* In the ''AngryBeavers'' 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, and finally finishes eating ten thousand boxes of cereal, he finds out that they've discontinued the promotion, and the brothers infiltrate the factory to get the prize.
* An episode of ''TheRaccoons' 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 [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Cyril Sneer]] deliberately left out one piece of the puzzle so no one can win). HilarityEnsues.

* 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 he collected another 900 jars for the return trip, they decided to go ahead and send him to [[http://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"]] which you could earn in several different places and then redeem for stuff.

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[[AC: Comic Books]]

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Live Action Television]]

[[AC: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 he collected another 900 jars for the return trip, they decided to go ahead and send him to Moers, Germany.

An episode of UK SitCom ''The Worker'' starring Charlie Drake has his character buying hundreds of boxes of cereal so he can find a GoldenTicket to a prize contest. He then spends weeks training for the contest until he's fully confident of winning [[spoiler:but shows up on the wrong day]].

Sometimes, this works like a lottery your chance of winning increases if you send in more coupons.

Sometimes, this works like a lottery this means that your chance of winning increases if you send in more coupons.

* In the DorothySayers novel ''Murder Must Advertise'' Lord Peter comes up with a marketing campaign based on this scheme while working undercover in an advertising agency.

There were (and are) competitions in RealLife by firms which work like this: On each package of the product (let's say, cornflakes), there's a coupon, you collect X coupons, send them in, and win a prize for it. X may be a reasonable number, but can also be ridicilously high - let's say, in the thousands.

Done in RealLife by firms who want to improve their customers' loyality. A common marketing trick. Can't really name many companies that produce something and haven't done this at least once.

Sometimes, this also works like a lottery - one lot for each coupon, which means that your chance to win becomes bigger if you send in more coupons. (But there are few if any stories which tell about people who send in lots of coupons, still don't win and get angry at the firm.)

So or so, in many stories the first prize is something the protagonist(s) really want, like an all-inclusive holiday in Hawaii for the whole family. HilarityEnsues in several possible ways:
* The protagonist buys so many cans/packages of the product that he can barely fit them in his house.
* A scene of the whole family eating nothing but the product, implying that they spent all their money for it. ([[FridgeLogic Maybe even more than the prize is worth.]])

!!!Realistic version:
* Calvin from ''CalvinAndHobbes'' once sent in coupons for a propeller beanie. In his case, the biggest problem was that he had [[strike:next to]] no patience waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

[[AC:RealLife]]
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 he collected another 900 jars for the return trip, they decided to go ahead and send him to 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"]] which you could earn in several different places and then redeem for stuff.


!!!Mad version:

* Just a throw-in joke and not a story line, but here's an obligatory ''[[TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' example:
-->'''Bart''': Nice jacket!
-->'''Milhouse''': Thanks, it cost me 50 thousand Bazooka Joe comics!
* In "Girl of Steal" from ''MyLifeAsATeenageRobot" the CoolToy is the Musique. Tucker wants one so badly that he steals boxtops 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 boxtops in and wait for the Musique to arrive in the mail.
* In the ''AngryBeavers'' 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, and finally finishes eating ten thousand boxes of cereal, he finds out that they've discontinued the promotion, and the brothers infiltrate the factory to get the prize.
* An episode of ''TheRaccoons' 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 [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Cyril Sneer]] deliberately left out one piece of the puzzle so no one can win). HilarityEnsues.
* An episode of UK SitCom ''The Worker'' starring Charlie Drake has his character buying hundreds of boxes of cereal so he can find a GoldenTicket to a prize contest. He then spends weeks training for the contest until he's fully confident of winning [[spoiler:but shows up on the wrong day]].

!!!Not sure:

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