We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

'Misleading' Walkers Crisps competition banned

Options
Former_MSE_Faye
Former_MSE_Faye Posts: 147 Forumite
edited 18 August 2016 at 9:11AM in Compers chat corner
ASA has banned an ad for a Walkers Crisps competition which offered 20,000 holidays after more than 100 complaints...
Read the full story:
''Misleading' Walkers crisps competition banned'
OfficialStamp.gif
Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
See the latest news from MoneySavingExpertNews
Follow the MSE on Twitter: @MoneySavingExp
Get Martin's Money Tips
Join the MSE Forum
«1

Comments

  • DynasticDux
    DynasticDux Posts: 3,549 Forumite
    'I spent over £50 on Walkers'

    MoneySavingExpert.com's Coupon Kid Jordon Cox was among those scrabbling to find packs of crisps with the right letters.
    He says: "The whole thing was a massive shambles! Being an avid comper, I was one of the first people to grab some Spell and Go packs when they first came out in May. Immediately it became apparent that the elusive letters would be 'C', 'D' and 'K' – every destination had at least one of those letters in.


    "I collected over 100 packs of crisps during the promotion and spent over £50 on Walkers…
    Reminds me of the famous saying
    A fool and his money are soon parted


    From the MSE Comping guide
    Spending to enter competitions is NOT MoneySaving
  • mjm3346
    mjm3346 Posts: 47,276 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 17 August 2016 at 7:49PM
    The competition has not been "banned" they could run it again tomorrow if they wanted, they are just required to promote it differently.

    I cannot believe an MSE employee had not sliced through the T&C's then crunched the numbers and crisply realised how little chance there was of getting the winning letters - there will have been 100's of millions of promotional packs produced and somewhere around 20,000 will have been winning ones.


    Could have picked up some idea of how little chance there was of winning from forum posts in May

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5459522
  • One-Eye
    One-Eye Posts: 70,035 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    I won a "D" "O" "C" and a "K" but didn't want to go to the Docks so I chucked them away. ;)
  • slbhill
    slbhill Posts: 5,441 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts


    Think someone forgot to update their link text :D


    But not the same person who spent 50p per pack on 100 packs. I'd be embarrassed to admit that!


    I don't know why it came as a surprise that some letters were hard to find. These comps always work that way - don't Macdonalds do it fairly regularly with their monopoly thing.
  • VT82
    VT82 Posts: 1,085 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    The way it's written, that Coupon Kid seemed to expect to not need to spend more than about £50 on crisps to win a £2k holiday. Erm, if it was that simple, everyone would be doing it! Being an 'avid comper'. he obviously doesn't really believe that would be the case, and it's been written to be more sensationalist than it needs to be, but he comes across as really thick in the article as it stands.
  • I get the latest ASA rulings mailed to me so knew about this days ago, basically they got the customary slapped wrist. Nothing more.
  • hamsterfan1
    hamsterfan1 Posts: 8,281 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    proud gran to 4 lovely boys and one little girl
  • DynasticDux
    DynasticDux Posts: 3,549 Forumite
    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/01/crisps-british
    Walkers, is the biggest crisp factory in the world. It processes 800 tonnes of potatoes a day. It has six, 200m-long production lines, each of which turns out three tonnes of crisps an hour. That's maybe 120,000 small 25g packets. Per hour. Times six. And this is only one of Walkers's seven UK crisp plants. Between them, they produce 10 million packets a day, satisfying just under half this country's appetite for potato chips.
    Comp run time
    Enter between 00.01 GMT on 10th April 2016 and 23.59 GMT on 31st July 2016

    So let's say they started producing packets 1st April - and stopped producing them 1st July - that's 92 days of producing 10 million packets a day

    So that's 920,000,000 million codes in circulation
    And "The Coupon Kid" expected to win a £2,000 holiday buying just 100 packets !!!


    920,000,000 / 20,000 = 46,000
    So that's 1 winning C, D or K in every 46,000 packets
  • toniq
    toniq Posts: 29,340 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    And their new comp is meant to be fairer they say......
    #JusticeForGrenfell
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.6K Spending & Discounts
  • 244K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.9K Life & Family
  • 257.3K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.