What’s This All Aboat?
Posted by
tgirsch
My wife and I travel to British Columbia, Canada on average about once every two years. We really like it up there. As a result, I occasionally get junk mail (both e- and paper) from Canadian tourism agencies. Today I received an e-mail telling me that if I ordered a BC travel guide, they would automatically enter me to win “one of three extraordinary BC retreats.”1 For some reason, I clicked on the terms and conditions, and I found this odd clause:
5A. For Canadian Residents Only:
Before being declared a winner, the selected entrant must first correctly answer, without assistance of any kind, whether mechanical or otherwise, a time limited mathematical skill testing question to be administered by telephone at a time mutually convenient for the entrant and Sponsor or promotional agent of Sponsor.
What the hell? If you’re an American, we don’t care if you’re an idiot, but if you’re Canadian, you have to at least be able to do basic arithmetic? Is this some sort of joke? Where’s Manish when I need him?
1 Notice, too, the misleading wording of the contest prizes. They’re not giving away three vacation packages, they’re giving away one — the lone winner gets to pick from three pre-packaged choices.
