How McDonald’s Screwed Up the Pirates of The Caribbean Game
July 7th, 2006 by Michael Gray in Advertising, Ideas, Random ThoughtsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Used to be fast food restaurants giving away free prizes was a great way to build the love, however McDonalds’s screwed it up royally with the new Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest tie in.
A+ for moving your prizes online, trying something new and attempting to make it more compelling and interactive.
C- for asking too many personal questions and requiring me to register before I could do anything.
D- for giving me a consolation prize of a digital music track and making it WMA format so it won’t work on an IPOD (ever hear of MP3?)
F- for making me aquire DRM to play the free digital music track.
So to sum it up, give us your your personal information, we’ll give you something you’ll have a hard time using, and completely restrict how you can use your “free” prize … umm gee thanks …
Sphere It
July 8th, 2006 at 10:40 am
I registered for the game but I avoided the mp3. My guess is that anything given away on these contest outside of the main prizes typically have strings attached that I want no part of.
July 9th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
They have a pirates of the caribbean game? I eat at MCD like twice a week, never heard of it. Then again, Jake says sometimes that I forget what sunlight looks like and screens that contain cable, not internet.
July 10th, 2006 at 8:53 am
It may have started on friday to tie in with the movie. You’ve got to get a fat daddy … err large size meal or big mac to get the game pieces.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:49 am
Every game piece on a drink is unusable. Once the pop starts to sweat the game piece gets wet and will not peel properly. What’s up with the internet crap. Give me an instant winner game. No one wants to log on to the web and give a bunch of personal info to see if the won or lost.
July 14th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
the game piece information is too hard to read
July 21st, 2006 at 10:15 am
The ad campaign on TV for this Pirates game is the lamest I have ever seen. I asked my 10 year old nephew to watch the commercial after I recorded it and he couldn’t make heads or tails of it either.
Timothy Graf
http://www.grafweb.com
http://www.grafwebnetworks.com
July 24th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Keep in mind that this is a lost treasure ie. search and seek, you will get your treat maties ARRR.
The Harder it is less likely to have others enter thus lowering your chance to win, right I think?
But I do agree on this game being not well planned out.
July 28th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
These online code-entering sweepstakes are the wave of the future … It’s called profiling and the serial number (in the game piece) is a way to track what restaurant that food item was sold. And as a bonus, if they can get your email and DOB, well that’s just fine and dandy.
You will not see any more games where you will know when you pull it off if you’ve won or not.
Today, they’re trading a free small fry or small burger for the nearly useless mp3 download. These items (mp3, ringtones, etc) are purely promotional and that you should take them if you lost since it’s not worth the privacy risk.
You’re best bet is to dial the toll free number. That way there you can enter a gibberish DOB, they don’t get your email address, and the call costs them a few cents.
August 7th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Nah man - all you have to do is get an audio type transformer program. WMA is basically an MP3.
August 22nd, 2006 at 3:06 am
1-800 numbers are allowed by law to make a record of the number that calls into them. So your personal info is gathered, updated in your file, and sold off to other telemarketers, spammers, and road side peddlers.
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
ive never herd about the ad promotion! is this only in the usa? or does great brittan have it as i have never herd about it and wat could be so bad about a game anyway?
June 12th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
my mom works at mcds and they never had no potc game. i of all people would have known, i mean im the biggest potc fan out there! who else actually wears piraty looking clothes and spends hours just looking up sheet music for it on the pc.? that is total bs. would have been totally cool though!!!!!!!!
September 3rd, 2007 at 7:15 am
lol mcdonalds twice a week, why go to it ever???