IPC & Scratch and Sniff

[Peppermint]

If you are subscribers to YM or PBO you'll be used to the shower of dross that falls out when you unwrap them. BBC news is running an item about scratch cards that promise big prizes but instead add a tenner to your phone bill if you try to claim.

This month PBO & YM delivered four such cards. Thats a bit smelly don't you think?

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[andyball]

BBc "news" eh? such cards aren't exactly a recent innovation.

Perhaps it helps keep the cover price down, subsidised by those lucky enough to "win" who phone up & get the big bills as a result.

"I didn't know it'd cost me a tenner to claim....." "Don't know how you missed it Sir, it's right there in the fine print".


Maybe Real "boaty" scratch & sniff cards ought to be made? you know, antifouling, varnish, bilgewater, seaweed, osmosis etc.....Identify all the smells correctly & call 0906 123456 to claim your prize.



<font color=gray><font size=1><font size=1>calls cost £2.50 p/m & may last 20mins</font size=1></font size=1></font>

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[kimhollamby]

Those cards are booked in by a central ad department here and, as I understand it from a previous investigation prompted by a similar comment, we don't have such a great deal of choice in the matter down here at the seaweed level.

I did also raise the issue of how appropriate these cards were but was shot down fairly firmly by the person responsible for selling them and told that we had not received any complaints from anyone that had actually been mislead by them but if we did receive complaints they would be acted upon.

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[Mirelle]

Good for you; hope you don't get any flak for that honest response. If you do, you will have a lot of support!

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[robp]

<I did also raise the issue of how appropriate these cards were but was shot down fairly firmly by the person responsible for selling them and told that we had not received any complaints from anyone that had actually been mislead by them but if we did receive complaints they would be acted upon.>

Kim, I'm sure you were! I'd have returned the fire with a salvo of "we in editorial have to try and double your dross with items of interest, just to counteract your negative impact".

They're a scourge and I'm amazed that they are still legal. The reasons for lack of complaint are;

They forgot
They didn't check their phone bills
They were embarassed
They didn't know that their kids kept trying in the hope of a win.

My ten year old is grudgingly accepting it now but it's another lesson that serves to teach him to be cynical at a tender age. He's convinced he'll change the fact that his old man is a couple of winches short of a Najad...

They're an insult to the intelligence. (Limited in my case)!

Can't you get them to stick our share in Hello Magazine?

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[kimhollamby]

<font size=1>Can't you get them to stick our share in Hello Magazine? </font size=1>

Well I could ask, but that would mean giving revenue to another publisher which might just put me in deep doo doos with IPC!


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[Twister_Ken]

Publishing idea

Maybe it's time for IPC to launch "What Scratch Card?"

Might be difficult to fill the page This Month's Winners, though.

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[andy_wilson]

For some years I have discarded the material I don't want to carry, onto the remaining display.

Our local newsagent now has a bin next to the magazine stand and it is well and truly filled each day.

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[StephenSails]

Maybe an alternative idea would be to do a boating scratch card sponsored by a chandlery or a charter company. Reveal two keel bolts and you get a sailing bag, reveal three burgees and win a sailing holiday or something like that.

Just a thought

Cheers

Stephen

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[robp]

Forgive me Kim. Last time I was in K.R.T., everyone was looking down on a terrace to see who "Hello" were entertaining! Changes since 5 years?

I'm sure there must be a worthy title in the fold though....

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[Cornishman]

I agree with your newsagent. As I live "in the stix" I get YM through the post so I have a similar bin in the kitchen which gets emptied once a day. After all, you don't HAVE to read them do you? They aren't included in SOLAS Chapter V are they?

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[StephenSails]

I just saw an article on BBC South on these annoying cards, it seems that the Dept for Trading Standards have been overwhelmed with complaints and they are trying to get them made ilegal. Full story is on BBC South tonight in "Inside Out" with Chris Packam.

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[Gordonmc]

If you read these cards you will find you can post them back.
Which I did.
Without a stamp.
If a few thousand fed up recipients of these cards did the same we might get some respite.

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[kimhollamby]

Loaded question

Oh, the terrace watching in recent times has involved Loaded as the target and there have been some sights to behold, apparently, although I've missed every one. Sadly they've sold the terrace now and moved the Loaded lads over here so I'm not quite sure where the tricks take place anymore.

Hello is a near neighbour, so perhaps you could/can see them...never worked that one out.

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[robp]

Re: Loaded question

Oh right, it was an over the fence job.. Loaded huh? Drat, can't reach that one on the shelves! Praps that's why David Blaine is hanging around up the road?

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[Peppermint]

That sounds like the answer.

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[Peppermint]

Re: Would you take this..

..as a complaint please Kim?

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[kimhollamby]

I will...

...but the point being made to me was that the guy had no evidence at that stage of anyone being defrauded or of any laws being broken. If you know of specifics to the contrary I am more than happy to take that up.

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[kimhollamby]

Re: Loaded question

Perhaps we just ought to give him a comp copy and put him out of his misery then?

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[Peppermint]

Re: It\'s more a question

of who you want to be seen with. It is not defrauding anyone but it is entrapping the unwary among your readers. Or maybe their children. My 20 year old daughter nearly gave it a go but I trained her better and she read the small print.

Of course if IPC needs to associate with this sort of disingenious nonsense to make a bob or two well perhaps reputation is less important in publishing than I thought.

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