Selective Enforcement By Major Corporation
A friend of mine was disqualified from a contest for alleged "bribery" after one of our mutual friends offered an incentive for people to help win a contest sponsored by Taco Bell. There was NOTHING in the rules that would indicate he would get into trouble for offering the incentive and another person had done it in the previous contest cycle.
Taco Bell sponsored a contest where, during each 2 week cycle, anyone who had the highest count of a specific tweet (pre-determined by the people running the contest) would win a $550.00 Taco Bell gift card. Re-tweets of the same message by other people (traced back to the original author) would also be counted. During the last 2 week cycle (6/14 - 6/28), the blog Couture Nerd offered 2 winners each 1 Ralph Lauren tote bag (valued at $75). Though there were many methods of entering the contest, one of them was "you must tweet this exact tweet No changes!!!" and the tweet was "RT @simplydab I LOVE the 7 new & tasty Fresco menu options at Taco Bell - each one under 9 grams of fat! #drivethrudiet http://bit.ly/tbdtd", which was the tweet for that week's contest cycle.
My friend posted an entry on his blog with the same premise; several methods of entry, one of them being that the entrant retweet the Taco Bell contest tweet for our mutual friend. Here's the entry, which you can clearly see has little to no difference from the Couture Nerd blog.
However, my friend was told by the people at Taco Bell that because there were no complaints during the previous cycle, @simplydab did nothing wrong. Yet my friend was disqualified because another friend of hers decided to help her out.
Here are the contest rules. There is NOTHING listed stating that a giveaway on a blog (that isn't even her own) to encourage people to re-tweet her messages is cause for disqualification. If they have just cause, then they should say it and not tip-toe around it. The only rule I could possibly think of that would give cause for the DQ is #9:
General Conditions: Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Promotion, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond Sponsor’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Promotion, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Promotion or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Promotion may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.
And of course, the last line is the perfect way for them to cover their butt in this very situation. I know of other people who've been disqualified without a clear break of the rules, so it doesn't seem that this contest is very "random".
Strange things are afoot at Taco Bell...
Taco Bell sponsored a contest where, during each 2 week cycle, anyone who had the highest count of a specific tweet (pre-determined by the people running the contest) would win a $550.00 Taco Bell gift card. Re-tweets of the same message by other people (traced back to the original author) would also be counted. During the last 2 week cycle (6/14 - 6/28), the blog Couture Nerd offered 2 winners each 1 Ralph Lauren tote bag (valued at $75). Though there were many methods of entering the contest, one of them was "you must tweet this exact tweet No changes!!!" and the tweet was "RT @simplydab I LOVE the 7 new & tasty Fresco menu options at Taco Bell - each one under 9 grams of fat! #drivethrudiet http://bit.ly/tbdtd", which was the tweet for that week's contest cycle.
My friend posted an entry on his blog with the same premise; several methods of entry, one of them being that the entrant retweet the Taco Bell contest tweet for our mutual friend. Here's the entry, which you can clearly see has little to no difference from the Couture Nerd blog.
However, my friend was told by the people at Taco Bell that because there were no complaints during the previous cycle, @simplydab did nothing wrong. Yet my friend was disqualified because another friend of hers decided to help her out.
Here are the contest rules. There is NOTHING listed stating that a giveaway on a blog (that isn't even her own) to encourage people to re-tweet her messages is cause for disqualification. If they have just cause, then they should say it and not tip-toe around it. The only rule I could possibly think of that would give cause for the DQ is #9:
General Conditions: Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Promotion, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond Sponsor’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Promotion, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Promotion or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Promotion may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.
And of course, the last line is the perfect way for them to cover their butt in this very situation. I know of other people who've been disqualified without a clear break of the rules, so it doesn't seem that this contest is very "random".
Strange things are afoot at Taco Bell...