Mike Stopforth

So I’m rushing out of the house this morning, late for a meeting again, and I grab my staple sipping sustenance from the fridge before leaping into my car and whizzing out the gate.

I’ve been drinking Yogi Sip for as long as I can remember. So drinking one this morning was nothing new, but what did catch my eye was the ad on the side of the label advertising a trip overseas to the MTV Europe Music Awards, and one of 20 Apple iPhones as possible prizes. iPhones??? Bloody heck, even my most technology-averse relative knows all about the iPhone. It’s arguably the most talked about technological gadget of the last decade. Now I’m one of the many South Africans who would love an iPhone, but must wait patiently for it to arrive on our doorsteps sometime next year, so the idea of Clover managing to wangle a few unlocked models from Apple SA was an enticing prospect to say the least.

It didn’t take me very long to track down the details of the competition online. I found this in the Terms and Conditions:

The instant prize is an Apple iPhone; there will be 20 won during the promotion. Conditions of the iPhone are as follows:

* The Prize winner will receive the iPhone on launch of the iPhone by Apple into the South African market.
* The iPhone date of launch is the 2nd quarter of 2008 and subject to change without notification.

Uhuh. Is it just me or is ‘instant’ a little bit of an exaggeration, considering it equates to a minimum of a six month wait?

Let me give credit to Clover (or their agency) for thinking of a way to leverage the iPhone hype to generate an unusual amount of interest around their campaign - they certainly had me looking it up whereas I very seldom take any interest in competitions at all. But it just feels a little skanky. Am I overreacting or is this common practice?