The Car Key Come On, Updated - and poorly.

[vakkotaur]

Does anyone recall the gimmick of being mailed or allowed to select a metal key with the idea that if the key you got opened or started a car, you won the car? This weekend I got the new version of that gimmick.

I got home from Sioux Falls on Saturday evening and took in the mail. There were the usual bits of advertising and updates and such. There was also a short tube of thin clear plastic with a bit of paper colorfully proclaiming how urgent it was and a key fob for a car.

The paper screamed advertising gimmick as the urgency was not real. "First Class Presort" isn't Express no matter what the colorful text tries to claim. If the included key openedd the Chrysler Pacifica in the showroom of a dealership in Windom, MN (What, never heard of the place? I'm not surprised. It's even more nowhere than Fairmont.) the car was yours, BUT the code on your paper had to match as well. This same code is also used to get the "pre-approved" credit line for vehicle. If you didn't win the car, well, there were few other prizes. A $500 shopping spree, and couple cash prizes, or a certificate for $2000 - guess towards what.

The odds were interesting. The car, shopping spree, and cash all had odds of 1 in 1,000,000. The certificate had odds of 999,996 in 1,000,000. Yep.

I got this item Saturday evening. Oops. "Act now! Contest ends June 26!" Well, too late. Hrmm, If the advertising is sent late and doesn't arrive until after or almost after the promo and some folks don't read the text on the included paper... Oops, pardon my conspiracy theory moment.

I got curious about the supposed key fob and took it apart, Two buttons (LOCK and open trunk) did nothing. They just had springs so they would move a bit. The UNLOCK button pushed down on a piece of stamped metal to make contact between an LED and a couple small button cells. It's just an LED flashlight, and it's not a very bright LED. I find this funny because had I been home on Saturday or gotten the promo earlier I could have determined if the supposed key had a chance of working without going to the dealer to be further advertised at. This is actually worse for the dealer than the old fashioned metal key.

I briefly pondered dropping the key in a parking lot somewhere and letting someone go nuts trying to find a car, but the things just feels wrong and the LED is a bit of a giveaway that it's not what it claims to be. So I'm keeping it. It's not very bright, which is sometimes a good thing. It's about ideal as a light for reading star charts and not ruining dark adaption.

I didn't get the Pacifica (which I likely would have turned around sold as I really have no desire to drive a Pacifica) but because of poor advertising choices, I did get a free flashlight that is, surprisingly, of some use to me.

Comments

[electronin.livejournal.com]

Now that we have orbital commercial flight, they'll use the skies as advertisement, until you walk around with a wide-brimmed hat, at which point they'll drive their cars around honking the horn at you.