Sweepstakes

Yesterday, after I saw Steve and Colin off to Belize City, I stopped in to check our little rental house.  The renters had vacated the day before and I wanted to begin getting ready for the next tenant.  I stripped the beds, got the laundry started and began sweeping and cleaning.  While the first load of laundry was drying and the second load started, I headed out the door to the neighborhood grocery store to restock the essentials.

First load finished and folded, second load drying, I sat down with the local newspaper, a diet coke and some plantain chips, (love, love, love these!)  Reading the paper, something else I love to do, I read a full page, 4 color ad for, " Beat the Hardtimes Sweepstakes"!  (Another something I love, contests/raffles, etc.)

I read this ad and reread it!  I couldn't believe it!  This was a contest sponsored by the friendly Belizean tobacco companies.  The entry rules are easy, if you're a smoker!  Buy the sponsors cigarettes, save the coupon inside the packs, "don't destroy them", the ad says and wait for the drawing!  The drawing is sometime in November 2009.  Still under the, "I cannot believe what I am reading" spell,  I continued.  Grand prize; $1000BZ a month for 12 months!  Yeah, I'd take that!  Second prize;  "Fuel efficient Honda Scooter"!  Not bad, Colin might like that!  Third prize; $100BZ worth of free groceries a month for 12 months from Brodies!  I like that store, and easily spend that when I am there, I'd take that prize too!  Fourth; $1000BZ worth of FREE clothing or household products from Brodies.  I can always use more "stuff"!  Fifth;  $1000 worth of gasoline or diesel from a station near you (!)  Wondering if SP Caribena qualifies?  Now we get to the real good stuff!  Sixth prize;  Free Dos Pinos milk every month for 12 months!  and the last prize, my favorite!  Twenty pounds of Free Rice every month for 12 months!!!!

I swear to holy heaven!  This ad cracks me up so much, I posted on "facebook" about it, I have it on my refrigerator door now and think I should send it along to school with my son to show his teachers!  Did these companies that are sponsoring this contest, not get the memo about the tobacco companies getting sued in the states for millions?  Did they also miss all the information from the Cancer Federation?  Clearly, this is not the USA, but come on folks, sponsoring a sweepstakes and encouraging a strapped economy to smoke cigarettes to win prizes is really in bad taste!  Now, I'm outraged by this ad!

I can remember my parents talking about these sort of contests in the states back in the 50's or maybe sooner than that!  Back before they (?really?) knew how horrible cigarettes are!  For awhile,  I believe the tobacco companies even had trading cards of sports heros inside the packs!  Well, this sort of contest mirrors that kind of stupidity!  Asking people to buy their products, save the coupons with the possible winning  numbers from the inside these said packages and holding on to them until sometime in November, is so outrageous,  I want to scream and hold a protest and boycott these idiots for such a disgraceful campaign.  Being a middle aged adult, I do not smoke cigarettes, I have preached to my children about the dangers in doing so and I try to limit my exposure to second hand smoke.  (Difficult to do sometimes, as unlike the states, smoking is still allowed in public places in Belize.)  I base my decision to not smoke on the facts about the dangers and addiction to these products, but mostly on seeing a dear uncle and my beloved grandfather die of lung cancer!  Both men were fairly young by today's standards!  Both men suffered horrible deaths and left behind young children in my uncle's case and a frail widow of my grandmother, who really never recovered from her husband's death.  If someone can die from a broken, lonely heart, my grandmother did.

So, my lecture/post of the day!  This the 4th of July!  Happy Independence Day to the US and happy independence from tobacco companies to everyone else.