Understanding McDonaldsese
This morning, Mordecai and I went to McDonald's. I love love love McDonald's breakfast. I know people (i.e. Joe) find their Minute Maid orange juice offensive, but I love it with my sausage egg McMuffin.
Anyway we were looking at the receipt's claim that there are "WINNER$ EVERY WEEK!" and Mordecai noticed something interesting in the fine print. It reads:
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Sweepstakes consists of individual weekly Entry Periods. Open only to legal residents of the US and Canada (other than the Province of Quebec), 15 years of age and older. In order to win, a Canadian resident must correctly answer a skill testing question. See Official Rules at www.mcdonalds-survey.com. Void where prohibited. Limit one entry per person per Entry Period. (Emphasis mine)One odd thing is that the Quebecois are excluded, but I'm not shedding any tears or anything. What we thought was strange is this emphasized line. What is this "skill testing" question? How are Americans automatically skilled; are we skilled in virtue of being American? But then I also realized that this sentence is poorly structured. I think it wants to say, "In order for a non-Quebecois Canadian to win, he or she must correctly answer a skill testing question." But as it is, the sentence reads, "For anyone to win, some Canadian resident must correctly answer some skill testing question [as selected by McDonald's]." Could a Canadian refuse to answer this skill-testing question on the grounds that the sentence is ambiguous, and still win $1000 "or other weekly prizes"?
4 comments:
ah but in canada we pay no taxes on wins, so alot of canadians would rather answer 1+1 = 2, and get a prize valued at (you fill in the blank)
myself, I've got about $9000 worth of wins for 2007 so far, and its not my best year for winning at all!!
p.s. if you answer the STQ wrong, you don't get the prize
as ive been gaining weight recently ive cut down on my mcdonalds breakfast consumption
ive gone from getting two meals with crappy/overpriced orange juice ~twice a week to getting free coffee and two hash browns every monday
their orange juice is from concentrate
the worst kind
also i roll with tropicana or floridas natural whenever possible
the only minute maid beverages i enjoy are their fruit punch in carton or canned form and the canned lemonade or orangeade
not certain about the exclusion of quebec
but i was trying to look up odds on inserts of basketball cards
and i came across a site that had places you could write to the companies for free cards
and for canadians they would have to answer a 'skill testing' question on their mail in entry
apparently its to prevent the contest from being classified as a private lottery, which is only allowed for government lottery and casinos
10+5*2-8=?
is the skill testing question for most of this years topps baseball sets
dec./03/2007 P.O.Box 57206,Phoenix,AZ,85079-7206,Mr:Teofil Poenar.I am concern about wining/every week!Are You shure?Chan You pruve Me about?Please sande My $.1,000.00soone posible I am a winer all ready.Thankyou!
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