Winning it BIG

Subway has a promotion going on based on the Scrabble board game. Maybe this has been going on for years, who knows, but my eyes have just recently been opened to it thanks to my friend JD who is actively and fervently trying to win the $100,000 prize. You could win big money or big prizes if you collect letters to spell out certain words. While I know most of these types of promotions are gimmicks that yield odds much like state lotteries (1 in millions), I am a sucker for a fun game that involves food. I always convince myself that if I eat enough, I will win, because honestly, someone's eventually going to win. Why not me? I'm a bit upset and embarrassed that I missed the bandwagon on this healthy Scrabble game. Why didn't someone inform me that there was a lower calorie alternative when I was trying to win McDonald's Monopoly?

My sister Lauren and I were roommates for a year in college. One afternoon, we drove to McDonalds to get...honestly, God knows what. Lauren is obsessed with McDonalds, and would go about once a month to get a Big Mac or something. While sipping on her Coke, she realized that the Monopoly game was going on for a limited time. We could win up to a million dollars. We needed some cash. We loved McDonalds. We were totally in.

From that day forward for a month and a half, we went to McDonalds EVERY DAY. We were both so terrified we would get fat, but we wanted to win so bad. We each had the Monopoly board taped to our dorm room walls and would come home and put the stickers on. We'd go through the drive through and get the things that would make us feel the least bad about ourselves that would also have the game pieces on them: Two large sweet teas, which we would take home and pour into a large pitcher in the fridge to drink at our leisure; a large fry that we would split; and fried Chicken Selects strips that we would put in a freezer bag to heat up in the future. Once we collected all the easy pieces, (you know, the ones that they make 14 million of so you think you are getting close) we started to get desperate. We were spending $10 a day on McDonalds, upping our caloric intake, and getting nothing in return. We came up with a solution: We needed to disperse. Going to just ONE McDonalds in all of Orlando wasn't going to get us the pieces we needed to be millionaires, so we began traveling to other McDonalds restaurants in the metro area hoping to "cheat" the system. Needless to say, we didn't win. I won about 14 free Quarter Pounders with Cheese, and about 12 "free soft drink with purchase of a Big Mac".

What's weird with Subway's promotion is that they are only offering the game pieces on large drinks. Not even on the sandwiches. Odd. I think McDonalds (and other fast food restaurants that use these kind of promotions) should put the game pieces only on healthy foods so you'd have to eat well in order to win. "I won a million dollars!! AND lost 11 pounds!!" That would be the best day of my life.