Sweepstakes nightmare for Roswell Honda dealership

Posted Jul 24th 2007 5:11PM by Tom Barlow
Filed under: Bad News, Consumer Experience, Marketing and Advertising, Kraft Foods'A' (KFT)

The contest was supposed to be straightforward: One of 50,000 recipients of a scratch-off promotional flyer sent to Roswell, NM, residents to promote the local Honda (NYSE: HMC) dealership would win the grand prize of $1,000. Instead, due to some sloppy proofreading, 30,000 people received winning tickets. Oops!

According to Advertising Age, Force Media Group of Atlanta, the company responsible for the promotions, sent two VPs to explain the faux pas to the holders of the erroneous winners. Rather than make good on $30 million of unplanned awards, the company is holding a "second chance" contest for the 30,000, in which they have a chance to win a $5,000 grand prize or one of 20 $1,000 prizes.

In 1989, Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) faced a similar screwup, and ended up settling a class action suit for $10 million. You don't suppose the attorneys for the plaintiffs in that case are on jets to Roswell, do you?

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