Support NeoGAF

[Brofist]

So certain gaffers have a better chance at winning a million dollars than getting laid. That gaffer is me.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Aren't there direct prices (apart from food) like in Spain?
My uncle got a Wii some years ago that way. And that's the only way I've seen people here winning things at the Monopoly game here, I have really never seen anyone getting a whole group of streets, and me and my friends I love Mc Donald's, so it's strange never seen one of those.

Why do people eat this poisonous shit?

This is the second time I have read a response by you, and the second time you said some idiotic opinion. The shitty character in your avatar doesn't help you either.

 

[RedAssedApe]

Every year I get a Boardwalk

lol i wasn't kidding...is combining pieces against the rules?

 

[Svafnir]

Is this starting in canada again also? Or is that seperate from americas

 

[Brofist]

Why do people eat this poisonous shit?

Well if you consider that we will all die eventually and that anything we eat or drink contributes to this wouldn't that just mean that healthy food is just slower acting poison?

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

I think im gonna try to win this year

 

[Ooccoo]

Kinda off-topic, but did you know that in France, McDonald's logo is green and not red? They did this to change the PR around the restaurant because people wanted to eat healthy. I thought it was cool when I learned that in a marketing course.

 

[RobotChant]

I wonder how many people win food items and never even bother to redeem them. I know I've won or were given winning food stamps numerous times and didn't bother to go redeem them. I've given them to people who work near McD's and they end up never redeeming them.

 

[Coreda]

Kinda off-topic, but did you know that in France, McDonald's logo is green and not red? They did this to change the PR around the restaurant because people wanted to eat healthy. I thought it was cool when I learned that in a marketing course.

I was thinking, 'Hmm, they all seem to have the same smile', before it dawned on me.

As for Monopoly McDs I always like me some free fries.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Kinda off-topic, but did you know that in France, McDonald's logo is green and not red? They did this to change the PR around the restaurant because people wanted to eat healthy. I thought it was cool when I learned that in a marketing course.

Yep Spain is the same, they also passed a healthy test so the have Q of Quality thing that only some restaurants have here or something like that. Also all their ads show a lot of lettuce in them. And if you compare them to the Burger Kings or any other fast food chain they are pretty clean.
And all of this seems to be working, they had a good PR marketing department here.

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I always feel like most people either 1) Don't care about the game, or 2) Don't understand which stamps are rare. To any of us, a Boardwalk piece would immediate mean driving to the nearest McDonalds and buying out their stock of Big Macs till the inevitable Park Place came. It's likely that the one or two Boardwalks out there just get thrown out.

I'm pretty sure someone has won the grand prize every year the contest was offered, which I find curious. To be fair, it was being scammed up until 2003, but even from then you'd think someone would have thrown one away by now.

I have also realized that the abundance of Park Place and Boardwalk alternate every year. One is easy to get and the other is the hard to get piece. It's a cruel, cruel game McDonalds plays every July.

Boardwalk has been the rare piece every year at least since the contest came back in 2003.

 

[JavyOO7]

I've always wanted Boardwalk, but alas, its always been the rare blue piece I could never get. Sad face... maybe this year is the year!

 

[Flame Lord]

Awww yes. I got like $20 worth of free McGridles last year. Count me in.

 

[bcl0328]

Is McDonald's Monopoly the best marketing campaign in the history of mankind? If not, it has to be up there.

i'd say so. i hardly ever eat there. this is the only time i would. my friend goes there a lot so we can eat there together now i suppose.


has gaf figured out the cheapest way to get the most pieces?

 

[marrec]

6 Billion Big Macs and the sandwiches cost around $4 each. So in reality you would be spending $24 Billion to guarantee a cool $1 million. (These are US prices)

You gotta spend money to make money.

 

[Kid Ska]

Oh god not again...

 

[SteveWinwood]

I have a good feeling this year.

Do the two hash browns for one dollar still give you 4 pieces?

 

[hwalker84]

I won $500 back in 2000 instant win.

 

[mclem]

the approximate odds of collecting the Winning Combination (Park Place and Boardwalk) found on Big Mac are 1 in 37,955,000.

What does 'found on Big Mac' mean in this context? I assumed at first it meant finding both tickets on a single sticker (Er, assuming the US version of monopoly has two per sticker; they do in the UK), but then the odds would be much higher, not lower.

 

[pikablu]

Count me in. I love doing this. One of my friends was trying to live off those free burgers last time. He'd usually end up getting lucky enough to where he spent like $5 or $6 the first time and got enough free stuff to get 2 burgers the next time.

 

[Skiptastic]

I haven't gone out for lunch in about two months...so this might be my go to for dinner when my fiance is busy.

 

[Baraka in the White House]

Why do people eat this poisonous shit?

Edgy.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

As kids me and my bro were always 1 stamp away from the entertainment package, actually one year my cousin had the piece we needed, only problem was the contest was over by a week.

Let me guess, you never actually saw his piece, but he 'swears' he had it

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

When I worked at McDonalds back in high school, me and two other guys stole a box of large fry containers and two boxes of hash brown holders. Didn't win a single thing. They started locking everything with pieces up in the safe after that.

 

[javac]

Everyone knows Filet-O-Fish is the best right? I want one now...

 

[Snkfanatic]

Why do people eat this poisonous shit?

Who took a piss in your Mcgriddle this morning?

 

[Slayer-33]

When I worked at McDonalds back in high school, me and two other guys stole a box of large fry containers and two boxes of hash brown holders. Didn't win a single thing. They started locking everything with pieces up in the safe after that.

Thief bastards lol

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Who took a piss in your Mcgriddle this morning?

It was the clown. He gets off on that shit.

 

[TheExodu5]

As kids me and my bro were always 1 stamp away from the entertainment package, actually one year my cousin had the piece we needed, only problem was the contest was over by a week.

Everyone says this as a kid. I'm willing to bet it's almost never true.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

Thief bastards lol

Yeah, it really was a stupid thing to do as minor as it seems. They figured out people were stealing them because someone else (not one of us three) took some too, and threw them all in the parking lot after peeling the pieces off.

So of course the boss sees a pile of fry containers when he comes in the next morning. He is fucking fuming. He starts going through the camera footage to find out who was taking them.

One of the three guys in my group is standing there in the office watching him do it, freaking out that we are about to get fired (and probably worse). He said literally just a few minutes before the footage gets to where it would have seen us, the cameras fucked up and stopped recording. If it weren't for that, I would have probably been arrested for stealing hash brown and fry containers.

 

[Escape Goat]

I just want to know if I won a free french fry or coffee.

 

[zma1013]

"the approximate odds of collecting the Winning Combination (Park Place and Boardwalk) found on Big Mac are 1 in 37,955,000."

So buying Big Macs results in a better chance at the million? I hate Big Macs.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

In high school we found a box of McDonald's fry containers that had like 300 inside. We opened them all.

We had free food almost all summer.


Oh pro tip

Hash brown + medium drink gets you 4 stamps for $2 dollars. I believe it's the cheapest $ to stamp combo.

 

[vagabondarts]

I always peel these and collect them in my coin slot in my car. Then I throw them away a couple weeks later because I don't win anything.

Probably won't play it this time

 

[Eleuin]

I got boardwalk a few times last year but I threw them away. Maybe I'll pay attention to this seriously this year.

 

[G_Berry]

I love both maccas and the monopoly promos.


I don't love the horrid shits I get from eating said maccas however.

 

[orion434]

The best food-promotion "contest" was in the 90's when Burger King had a game-piece Checker-board where every piece was a winner! In reality there was a 1 in 4 or 25% chance to win ( had to jump the spaces in the correct order ) Burger King made the game-piece along with a chance to win a big-ticket item like a Car or Boat that had 2 sides and were numbered. My friends and I would record the numbers and saw the patterns... for example if you got piece 6 & 9 then the Food Prize would be on spot # 3 ALWAYS!

The month progressed and the manager noticed that we always had winning game pieces and told us that we were banned from claiming prizes. So we did what every teenager would do... we got even! There was a High School close-by and they were able to eat lunch at Burger King so we stood outside and scratched off the winning food-item for EVERY STUDENT! Hundreds of free food items!!!

Ultimately the store backed out of participating in the promotion. haha

 

[Perkel]

Yes, people who totally by chance happen to be relatives of high-ranking employees of McDonald's

Do people still believe they can win something ?

I worked in telecomunication operator and president there worked earlier in Coca-Cola (polish division). He was "fired" because white porshe was won by his relatives. Ofcorse that was "chance"

 

[Protein]

6 Billion Big Macs and the sandwiches cost around $4 each. So in reality you would be spending $24 Billion to guarantee a cool $1 million. (These are US prices)

Why not hashbrowns?

Edit: never mind. Hashbrowns =/= Big Macs

 

[Lazy Man's Wallpaper]

Is it just me or is it really early this year? In the past it's been going on during football season.

Anyway, hype!

 

[perfectchaos007]

Do people still believe they can win something ?

I worked in telecomunication operator and president there worked earlier in Coca-Cola (polish division). He was "fired" because white porshe was won by his relatives. Ofcorse that was "chance"

Well....

In 2000, the US promotion was halted after fraud was uncovered. A subcontracting company called Simon Marketing (a then-subsidiary of Cyrk), which had been hired by McDonald's to organize and promote the game, failed to recognize a flaw in its procedures. Chief of security Jerome P. Jacobson[1] was able to remove the most expensive game pieces, which he then passed to associates who would redeem them and share the proceeds. The associates won almost all of the top prizes between 1995 and 2000, including McDonald's giveaways that did not have the Monopoly theme. The associates netted over $24 million. While the fraud appeared to have been perpetrated by only one key employee of the promotion company, and not by the company's management, eight people were originally arrested, leading to a total of 21 indicted individuals.[2] The relationship between McDonald's and Simon Marketing broke down in a pair of lawsuits over breach of contract, eventually settled out of court, with McDonald's' claim being thrown out and Simon receiving $16.6 million.[3] Due to a constitutional violation, four of those convicted of the fraud were later released as they were not initially charged with the offense.[4]
In 1995, St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee received an anonymous letter postmarked Dallas, Texas, containing a $1 million winning game piece. Although game rules prohibited the transfer of prizes, McDonald's waived the rule and is making the $50,000 annual payments.[5] Investigations later indicated that Jacobson had admitted to sending the winning piece to the hospital.[6]

 

[Roto13]

Why do people eat this poisonous shit?

To make shitty internet children ask stupid questions.

 

[diamondstar]

Couldnt you just sell or buy the boardwalk game piece on ebay? Or is that against the rules?

 

[Vyrance]

I play every year and get disappointed every year for not winning anything good. I don't foresee this changing anytime soon!

 

[Phoenix]

There are many times I will win fries or a Big Mac or similar and never actually remember to cash it in.

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Couldnt you just sell or buy the boardwalk game piece on ebay? Or is that against the rules?

It's against the rules, but besides that, think hard about how much it would cost to buy a game piece inherently worth one million dollars.

 

[NerdEyeBlind]

I remember when I worked at McDonalds during one of the first Monopoly games and some of the employees were 'losing' boxes of game pieces to redeem with just a few days left in the contest

 

[dekline]

Winning free McDonalds food by eating at McDonalds is one of life's greatest pleasures.

 

[Mudkips]

I have been playing the game annually for at least 17 years and the "rare" pieces have always been the same. I know them by heart.

Mediterranean Ave
Vermont Ave
Virginia Ave
Tennessee Ave
Kentucky Ave
Ventnor Ave
Pennsylvania Ave
Boardwalk
Shortline Railroad

Never once have I seen one of these stamps in person, and I probably never will

This man is correct. All this talk about "alternating" is bullshit. You're remembering things wrong and you should feel old and sad. Think about it - how much of your life as you remember it is a lie?

Game piece info, mostly the same as last year. All items include 1 game piece (2 stickers) unless otherwise noted:

Medium Fountain Drinks
Medium or Large Iced McCafé, Blended McCafé, McCafé Smoothies, or McCafé Shakes
Small, Medium, or Large McCafé Iced Coffee
Medium, Large, or Extra Large Minute Maid Premium Orange Juice
Big Mac sandwich
Filet-O-Fish sandwich
10-piece Chicken McNuggets
20-piece Chicken McNuggets (2 game pieces, 4 stickers)
Large Fries (2 game pieces, 4 stickers)
Premium McWrap
Hash Browns
Egg White Delight McMuffin, Egg McMuffin, or Sausage McMuffin with Egg (excludes Sausage McMuffin)
Fruit & Maple Oatmeal

As for the odds:

Odds are based on "game pieces", and each "game piece" is a set of 2 "game stamps" - the individual stickers, and there are TWO $1,000,000 prizes, and there will be a total of about 602,490,060 game pieces.

Park Place - 1 in 11
Boardwalk - 1 in 602,490,060
Both - 1 in 3,050,412,898

But 11 * 602490060 = 6,627,390,660.
And then there's this: Both on a Big Mac - 1 in 37,955,000

So how does that make any sense?
There's guaranteed to be one Big Mac container that has both the Park Place and Boardwalk "game peels" on it together as one "game piece". Buy all 37,955,000 Big Mac containers and it's yours.

There is one OTHER Boardwalk piece, which could be anywhere. However, I would expect it to NOT be on a Big Mac, fountain drink, or large fries, NOT be available by sending in a SASE to get free Game Pieces, NOT in the promotional materials (such as the boards with free pieces in the Sunday newspaper or whatever they end up doing this year), etc.

Still no idea how they came up with 1 in 3,050,412,898 to win the non-Big Mac way. But the bottom line is if you like Big Macs your odds are 1 in 38 million, and if you don't, your odds are 1 in 600 million. If you get Boardwalk you'll spend $20 on hash browns the next morning to get Park Place.

 

[Himynameischris]

Guess I'm eating a lot of chicken nuggets this month...woooo!