McDonald's Monopoly
Following countries included Canada,[2] Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
[4] McDonald's had a relationship with Simon Worldwide Inc., which was responsible for the distribution of the contest pieces and the awarding of major prizes.
In 2016, the game changed so that all available prizes were cash, including the $1 million for Park Place and Boardwalk, and was titled "Money Monopoly".
[11] Additionally, in the 2005 edition, certain foods always came with one coupon which could be used at either Best Buy, Toys "R" Us, or Foot Locker (including online stores).
Each game piece lists a code which can be entered online, to a maximum of 10 entries per 24 hours, a day starts at midnight EDT.
Rolling "doubles" (two dice sharing the same number), as with the real board game, allows the user to move again.
Landing on Go (but not simply passing it) gives the player a code worth one free hour of WiFi access at participating McDonald's restaurants.
Landing on Community Chest allows the user to be given a code worth 25 My Coke Rewards points.
Landing on Free Parking is a prize of a $50 refillable gas card from Shell, or alternatively 25 complimentary apple pies.
This allows McDonald's to declare the odds of winning certain prizes, a legal requirement for contests in most jurisdictions.
In 2016, players can enter up to ten codes daily in order to win weekly sweepstakes with a $50,000 grand prize.
[13][19][20] In 2019, Deputy Leader of the UK Labour Party, Tom Watson, said that the Monopoly promotion was a "danger to public health" and urged McDonald's to drop the "grotesque marketing strategy".
A subcontracting company, Simon Marketing (then a subsidiary of Cyrk), which had been hired by McDonald's to organize and promote the game, failed to recognize a flaw in its procedures.
Simon's chief of security Jerome P. Jacobson ("Uncle Jerry"), a former police officer, stole the most valuable game pieces.
[22][23] In 1995, Colombo appeared in a nationally televised McDonald's commercial promoting his (fraudulent) win of a Dodge Viper.
[25] In 1995, St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, received an anonymous letter with a Dallas, Texas, postmark that contained a $1 million winning game piece.
Although game rules prohibited the transfer of prizes, McDonald's awarded the $1 million as a donation to the hospital, making the final $50,000 annuity payment in 2014.
[28] In June 1996, Colombo's father-in-law William "Buddy" Fisher came forward as a winner with a stolen $1 million Monopoly piece.
[29] After Colombo died in a 1998 traffic accident, Jacobson found new accomplices to help him sell the stolen game pieces.
[26] McDonald's severed its relationship with Simon Marketing and each company filed lawsuits against the other for breach of contract that were eventually settled out of court.
In August 2018, 20th Century Fox announced plans for a film based on the Jacobson fraud, with Ben Affleck attached as director, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese as writers and Matt Damon in an acting role.
