The Caltech Sweepstakes Caper
hoaxes.org

Caltech student Becky Hartsfield shows off the prizes she won.
Caltech is known for producing world-class scientists and engineers. But a few of its students have also demonstrated a flair for the law, as a highly controversial 1975 prank that turned on the legalistic reading of a sweepstakes entry form proved.

The sweepstakes in question was held by McDonald's. It ran from March 3rd to March 23rd, 1975, at 187 participating McDonald's restaurants in Southern California. The prizes included a year of groceries, a Datsun Z, McDonald's gift certificates, and cash. But one part of the contest rules caught the attention of three Caltech students who lived in Page House — Steve Klein, Dave Novikoff, and Barry Megdal. The part they noticed was the phrase Enter as often as you wish. What if, the Caltech students wondered, a person entered the sweepstakes one million times?

I just saw this picture and it reminds me of Disaster Girl… Real prank was the idea for the scene in Real Genius where Lazlo Hollyfeld submits over a million submissions to a sweepstakes.

  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
    7·
    2 months ago

    McDonald’s representative, Ron Lopaty, commented that, “The original intent of the sweepstakes contest was to provide all McDonald’s customers with over 1,850 chances to win prizes best suited to lessen effects of the current economic slump.” He then denounced the Caltech stunt, calling it “in complete contradiction of the American standards of fairplay and sportsmanship.”

    As if McDonald’s wasn’t “in complete contradiction of [any] standards of fairplay and sportsmanship.”

    • klugerama@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 month ago

      Exactly. I’d speculate that they were only pissed that there was so much publicity and that they had to pay out (although they still cheated by only giving 20% to the Caltech students). Otherwise, they could totally get away mostly paying out “winners” that were either employees or relatives, like they did for years with the Monopoly contests.