POLL: Stinking WINNER ad.

Remove all ads!

Yeah, I keep getting the same winner ad from this site. Something about being the 1,000,000th visitor. I've never tried these things before and I was just wondering if I'd acually get my free laptop. So what do you think, should I do it?


EDIT: Yipes. I think I put this in the wrong thread. If I did, mind moving it to the correct one? Thanks.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 13 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Stinking WINNER ad. (13 votes.)

Whould I do it? (Choose 1)
* Do it! They work. They really do! - 23% (3)
* NO!!! It's out to kill you and roast your corpse over an open flame!! - 62% (8)
* Hm. Never tried it myself. I say go for it. - 0% (0)
* Bad idea. I did one and it was spam attacked. - 15% (2)

 

I told you to do it but I was just being the devils advocate . Just remember that there is no such thing and free and the luck of being the millionth customer usually doesn't happen more than once.

Kind of like those phone calls that you get that tell you that you have won a free trip .... as long as you make over 60'000 dollars per year.

 

I agree with BTA in regards to what they claim is free is not actually free, but rather require you to sit through tons of their spam e-mails and sign up for a bunch of things for other sites (sometimes) which requires money to exchange hands.

It says one millionth winner for everyone, as well, I believe. At least, I get the same message.

Man, unless I'm looking directly at the ad, the ad with its flashing and whatnot makes me dizzy and nauseous.

 

Most of ad industry people should be locked.

 

I think we all need to remember Heinlein's allusion to thermodynamic law - "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". There's always a cost - neither matter, energy nor consumer electronics just magically pop into existence; they are merely getting converted (or in less literal examples, exchanged for something else).

In a literal example, solar energy gets taken in (along with water, carbon dioxide and nutrients) by a plant and converted into increased mass of the plant. Then a cow comes along, eats the plant and (with other ingredients being oxygen and water) converts the plant mass into animal mass, some less water along with waste chemicals, carbon dioxide and radiated heat energy (the cow being warm-blooded). Then I come along with a butcher's knife...

But in the case of the '<perform some dubiously easy feat of mouse-dexterity> and win a free <insert consumer electronic device>' ads I usually see, the company bought the iPods or Wii's or whatever at wholesale cost, and write off that expense in favour of increased revenues from incidental purchases from "well, as long as I'm here..." syndrome. And if those other items have been marked up from their pre-'contest' price?

And all that is just taking a more honourable train of thought about the company; it could be a case like the "You won a free cruise" scam. You just have to call a 1-900 # to claim the prize, and wait on the line for five or six hours.


Then there's lures for viruses and spybots ("It's not illegal for me to collect his info if he enters the contest!!! He clearly agreed to it with the T&C when he clicked:

Don'cha love hyperbole?

 

One common marketing research method is to pay people for providing you with information that can be useful for advertising purposes. Typically, they compensate with cash (for your time) but some will offer items instead.

From a financial standpoint, all the items can be bought with pretax money at a pretty good sized discount and then given away and amortized as R&D.

All in all, it can be a situation where everyone wins. There are just as many scams around, though, so be careful.