re: MY COKE REWARDS ...MARKETING OR FRAUD?

Coca Cola. Ask my wife. I'm a big fan. Love Diet Coke. So, when Coke announced the My Coke Rewards program, the soda equivalent to "green stamps," I was totally in.

I saw the chance to get a 23" monitor, an mp3 player, or even vacation getaway. But the devil is in the details. You only allow the inputting of 10 codes a day, some worth 10 points (12 packs), others worth 3 (2 litre, 1 litre or 20 oz bottles). From your website:

However, when looking at the point prices for the REALLY good items, the math just doesn't add up.

* Sleek and Stylish 23" Sony Bravia S-Series 20000 points (667 days to earn).
* Enjoy a Weekend Winter Getaway Vermont 22000 (733 days to earn)
* RV America Family Trip 26000 (866 days to earn)
* Free movies for a year from AMC Theaters 10000 (333 days to earn)
* Backstage experience at a concert in the US 26000 (866 days to earn)
* Fashion Week in NYC 26000 (866 days to earn)

Sure, there are some easy ones (subscription to CosmoGirl or 17 magazine about 3 days to earn; Coca Cola TShirt - 8 days to earn; a Ringtone download 1/2 day to earn), but the good stuff, the REALLY good stuff is literally impossible to redeem for.

The rules, however, regarding the time you have to redeem in the promotion just won't allow it:

The current phase of the Program began at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time (“ET”) on February 27, 2006 and is scheduled to end at 11:59 a.m. ET on April 16, 2007 (the “Redemption Period”), but sponsor reserves the right to shorten, extend, modify, or cancel the Program, at its discretion, at any time.

That means you have 440 total days to redeem. If you buy 5 12 packs EVERY SINGLE DAY, you can perhaps make it, but only inputting every single day, you can't miss one. 10 12 packs may buy you a missed day every once in awhile.

But if you consistently buy a 2 litre every day, there's no way mathmatically that you can get anything worth more than a few hundred points.

Great marketing tool, but from where I come from, if you make it impossible for your customers to earn what they want then it's is simply FRAUD.

And that ain't the "real thing."