"Up In The Air"

A curious thing happened today.

When I opened my door to go out to check the mail I was greeted by a fair sized padded envelope left behind by my friend the UPS delivery person. Now, finding a package on my doorstep is nothing new but what was inside... that's where the mystery started.

Checking the return address as I opened the package I found a rather un-helpfully vague "Deluxe Media Management PHE Publicity c/o Deluxe". Okay, so, I know it's almost entirely likely to be a win from... SOMETHING. I don't get mail from publicity companies unless that's the case... but what did I win?

Inside I find a DVD of Paramount's "Up In The Air" but that's not all, there's also a CD of the movie soundtrack as well as a metal... thing. (I don't know what it is, check the pictures if you'd like to venture a guess)

But that's it.

No congratulatory letter, no self promotion... nothing.

Well crap, how am I supposed to credit this on MaybeAWinner? I never got an email notification of winning... So I check the return address again, looking it up on Google doesn't lead me to the answers I'm looking for, both companies are invovled in too much. So I went ahead and called the number on the return address, was connected to the specific person listed on the return address and talked to her about my dilemna. While she seemed a bit confused as to why I specifically wanted to know she was quite pleasant about things.

As it turns out the company sending the package doesn't even know where I won this particular prize set. They just had it handed down from Paramount. So this one remains a mystery, possibly from the movies website, possibly from somewhere else... no one knows.

Hopefully I like the movie... or the soundtrack... or the metal... thing.

And now, a word from our sponsors

As you can see I've opted in for Google AdSense, I wasn't sure I wanted to let ads on my blog here but I read up about AdSense and decided that it's quite worthwhile for a number of reasons. Sure, I might make a buck or two from it in the long run but honestly the real reason I chose to use it is even more appropriate: It makes finding/linking to sweepstakes easier.

Most of the sweeps I post about are relatively well advertised promotions for big name companies. AdSense scans through what my articles are about and posts ads that are relevant to the topic, for instance I've posted about the Coca-Cola MyCokeRewards program before and sure enough google places an ad for that very same program. So yes Virginia, ads worth clicking do exist.

Speaking of the Coca-Cola MyCokeRewards; today in the mail there was an envelope from Best Buy waiting for me, sure enough it was my Best Buy Pitch-In card I had won from the MyCokeRewards instant win game. Way to go Best Buy with your quick turn around on sending those out... I've yet to check and see if the company running the promotion has loaded it yet though.

With Thanksgiving came the end to a number of the more worthwhile sweeps, no real wins to report I'm sad to say... then again there's always that (fairly large) chance I've won something without being notified so I'll just have to keep checking that old mailbox.

The month of December already looks promising for some potentially excellent (and some potentially great in an awful way) sweeps and promos so we shall see what the future may hole.