CocaCola did a ring pull collection promo for Euro96, where you could get T-shirts, Drill Tops and CDs. Got the lot, in duplicate. Drill top was very good quality, lasted years. That was cool.
Cherry Coke also ran a promo to get a ring pull shaped earring. Mate got one and had it in his eyebrow. Odd.
I never eat McDonalds UNLESS Maccies Monopoly is on, and then it’s a shameful amount of chips, milkshakes and whatever comes in a box with the stickers on, all for that sweet, sweet dream of getting the dark blues and £100k in cash.
Most I’ve ever won is a free cheeseburger and I have put on a lot of weight during Monopoly season in past years.
When they used to game demo disks in cornflakes etc. that was awesome
I remember the coca-cola yo-yo phase of the late 80s. Everyone went yo-yo mental. Professional yo-yo people came to our corner shop… madness of course it was all well and good until Susan Carr got concussion from being bonked on the head at school by one and they were banned.
Walkers did one for winning a tenner when it rained, was easy to just pick somewhere in Scotland, think I ended up winning about £50 as a 13yo
Walkers had all the best promos, remember TAZOs from Looney Tunes to Star Wars. Can’t think of anything else that comes close.
Pot noodle horn.
Fun fact – this promotion wasn’t legal in Northern Ireland because the law states that all competitions like this must have a free method of entry. It was going to be a logistical nightmare to separate the NI from the GB stock so they had a workaround. There was a phone number you could ring to enter the competition for free. When you rang the number the person on the other end opened a packet of crisps and told you if you won or not.
Cereal prizes! I still remember those rad thermal colour changing cereal spoons with the straw end. I think it was from a box of Coco Pops.
The Cola italia 90 mini football would take some beating. The legendary gold one was only a.dreqm for the 5 year old me.
Also special mention to Tazos
The free coca cola glasses you used to get at mcdonalds remain a relic of the good old days
About 30 years ago, Yorkie did one for a “Dirty Day Out”, which was a prize for a day doing paintballing, driving tanks and ATVs.
Somehow they managed to produce waaaaaay more winning packets that they intended to. Think they were meant to do 2000 tickets but about 200,000 winning tickets
I won a Gameboy from a voucher in a packet of quavers when I was 11. Peaked
Won a go-pro camera on McDonalds monopoly some years back.
Not needed .. sold on EBay .. nice £250 👍
Free packet of salt in the Walkers plain crisps
Spokey-Dokeys and the wee reflective roosters out Cornflakes.
The last Rolo, was it a gold Rolo?
Shreddies ghost buster stickers with a action scene on the back of the pack, weetabix space vehicles
Monster munch bike reflectors
Blue Heinz Ketchup was pretty wild.
Is there a reason they can’t do these anymore? Encouraging people to eat bad foods? or is it all part of what I can only describe as the shitification of things over time.
My first mobile phone was a Coca-Cola branded Ericsson A1018s. £30 and a load of ring pulls (which was easy as my mum drank the stuff daily). My dad had been talking about getting me a phone, so I figured the promo was a good way of making that a reality.
Wasn’t a bad phone for the time either.
Advertising more than promotion, but the Cadbury’s gorilla advert. Did not mention chocolate at all but any time it came on, I wanted Cadbury’s. Even now, 2 (?) decades later, if I hear “In the Air Tonight” I have a Pavlov’s dogs reaction and want to go buy some chocolate. Genius
I loved Five as a teenager.
Cadbury’s did a promotion where you could get concert tickets with wrappers.
I can’t remember how many bars you needed, but my dad went to Woolworths and got the amount we needed for 2 tickets.
We were eating Boost bars for weeks.
I remember Kelloggs having good ones. Vividly remember as a kid being all over those Batman & Robin disc things to tie in with the film. And Roald Dahl books
Am I imagining this or did McDonalds once do a promotion where you could find banknotes in the straws?
I remember the when Walkers was doing a free iPod mini every 5 minutes. I never got one but I remember being sure my uncle would win one for me because he was obese and ate a lot of crisps.
PG Tips did a ‘Free tea for your entire family for a year’ competition, and my mum won!
They seemingly benchmarked the amount of tea a typical Northern household drank because we had so much the larder was stacked. I still remember the potent smell of the wall of boxes and thought we would never have to buy tea ever again.
My mum finished it off in 6 months. Respect.
Tropicana had a promotion where you could win £5 each time you buy a 4 pack of their small orange bottles. Each bottle in the packet had a code on it and I won 12 times over 1 1/2 months meaning I got £60 just for doing my normal shop. Each packet I brought had between 1- 4 winning bottles so was getting the drinks for free and even making a profit sometimes which was nice as I was a college student at the time.
I am really showing my age now, but two that come to mind where both petrol garage promotions.
First one, 80’s I think. Collect 6 vouchers, would typically get 1 or 2 every fill up, for a free glass. Sherry, Champs, pretty sure there were others. I would only use that chain for them. Still got them. It is difficult to not see them in most charity shops now, and I will always point them out proudly to the Mrs.
Even older. 70s? World Cup ‘coins’, you got one of every time so much was spent. Basically the England World Cup squad that went in a collection folder. I loved them. Still remember my excitement every time my dad, rest his soul, would bring home a new coin.
The Walkers promotion where if you correctly predicted an area of the UK would have rain on a particular day, you won cash.
Rains an awful lot in the North West 😉
I remember McDonalds giving out little red pedometers as Happy Meal ‘toys’ in the early noughties. I think it would have been around the time Jamie Oliver was waging a war against fast food for making kids fat – almost certainly not a coincidence.
I remember winning £20 in a packet of Walkers as a kid and my mum immediately took it off me and I never saw it again.
Not a promotion but I opened a bag of cheese and onion discos in primary school,and it was just the flavouring, not a single disco. 20g of pure powder roleplaying as cheese and onion, Best day of my life
I still think about my sprite and Fanta Yo-Yos. Such glorious days
Early 90s Smarties did this cool Wrap around shades promo, couldn’t wait to get my hands on them! Sadly, they hardly stayed on your face and was in danger of taking an eye out what they snapped back
When the phantom menace came out walkers gave away cash or a jar jar binks sticky tongue toy, I must have won at least 5 toys.
Anyone remember the filled-in Hula Hoop promotion where the prize was £100,000 ?
Yeah? Well, 5 year old me ate it. I wish I was joking.
42 comments
I think I peaked in life when I found a fiver in a packet of crisps during lunchtime at Primary school. Never again would I hit those dizzying highs.
Have to mention the Hoover promotion: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_free_flights_promotion
Utter plonkers.
CocaCola did a ring pull collection promo for Euro96, where you could get T-shirts, Drill Tops and CDs. Got the lot, in duplicate. Drill top was very good quality, lasted years. That was cool.
Cherry Coke also ran a promo to get a ring pull shaped earring. Mate got one and had it in his eyebrow. Odd.
I never eat McDonalds UNLESS Maccies Monopoly is on, and then it’s a shameful amount of chips, milkshakes and whatever comes in a box with the stickers on, all for that sweet, sweet dream of getting the dark blues and £100k in cash.
Most I’ve ever won is a free cheeseburger and I have put on a lot of weight during Monopoly season in past years.
When they used to game demo disks in cornflakes etc. that was awesome
I remember the coca-cola yo-yo phase of the late 80s. Everyone went yo-yo mental. Professional yo-yo people came to our corner shop… madness of course it was all well and good until Susan Carr got concussion from being bonked on the head at school by one and they were banned.
Walkers did one for winning a tenner when it rained, was easy to just pick somewhere in Scotland, think I ended up winning about £50 as a 13yo
Walkers had all the best promos, remember TAZOs from Looney Tunes to Star Wars. Can’t think of anything else that comes close.
Pot noodle horn.
Fun fact – this promotion wasn’t legal in Northern Ireland because the law states that all competitions like this must have a free method of entry. It was going to be a logistical nightmare to separate the NI from the GB stock so they had a workaround. There was a phone number you could ring to enter the competition for free. When you rang the number the person on the other end opened a packet of crisps and told you if you won or not.
Cereal prizes! I still remember those rad thermal colour changing cereal spoons with the straw end. I think it was from a box of Coco Pops.
The Cola italia 90 mini football would take some beating. The legendary gold one was only a.dreqm for the 5 year old me.
Also special mention to Tazos
The free coca cola glasses you used to get at mcdonalds remain a relic of the good old days
About 30 years ago, Yorkie did one for a “Dirty Day Out”, which was a prize for a day doing paintballing, driving tanks and ATVs.
Somehow they managed to produce waaaaaay more winning packets that they intended to. Think they were meant to do 2000 tickets but about 200,000 winning tickets
I won a Gameboy from a voucher in a packet of quavers when I was 11. Peaked
Won a go-pro camera on McDonalds monopoly some years back.
Not needed .. sold on EBay .. nice £250 👍
Free packet of salt in the Walkers plain crisps
Spokey-Dokeys and the wee reflective roosters out Cornflakes.
The last Rolo, was it a gold Rolo?
Shreddies ghost buster stickers with a action scene on the back of the pack, weetabix space vehicles
Monster munch bike reflectors
Blue Heinz Ketchup was pretty wild.
Is there a reason they can’t do these anymore? Encouraging people to eat bad foods? or is it all part of what I can only describe as the shitification of things over time.
My first mobile phone was a Coca-Cola branded Ericsson A1018s. £30 and a load of ring pulls (which was easy as my mum drank the stuff daily). My dad had been talking about getting me a phone, so I figured the promo was a good way of making that a reality.
Wasn’t a bad phone for the time either.
Advertising more than promotion, but the Cadbury’s gorilla advert. Did not mention chocolate at all but any time it came on, I wanted Cadbury’s. Even now, 2 (?) decades later, if I hear “In the Air Tonight” I have a Pavlov’s dogs reaction and want to go buy some chocolate. Genius
I loved Five as a teenager.
Cadbury’s did a promotion where you could get concert tickets with wrappers.
I can’t remember how many bars you needed, but my dad went to Woolworths and got the amount we needed for 2 tickets.
We were eating Boost bars for weeks.
I remember Kelloggs having good ones. Vividly remember as a kid being all over those Batman & Robin disc things to tie in with the film. And Roald Dahl books
Am I imagining this or did McDonalds once do a promotion where you could find banknotes in the straws?
I remember the when Walkers was doing a free iPod mini every 5 minutes. I never got one but I remember being sure my uncle would win one for me because he was obese and ate a lot of crisps.
PG Tips did a ‘Free tea for your entire family for a year’ competition, and my mum won!
They seemingly benchmarked the amount of tea a typical Northern household drank because we had so much the larder was stacked. I still remember the potent smell of the wall of boxes and thought we would never have to buy tea ever again.
My mum finished it off in 6 months. Respect.
Tropicana had a promotion where you could win £5 each time you buy a 4 pack of their small orange bottles. Each bottle in the packet had a code on it and I won 12 times over 1 1/2 months meaning I got £60 just for doing my normal shop. Each packet I brought had between 1- 4 winning bottles so was getting the drinks for free and even making a profit sometimes which was nice as I was a college student at the time.
https://preview.redd.it/pdmm5okp9qne1.png?width=1237&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2d464fc81c5bc2e2d57513b82ab54eea2b2d32a
I am really showing my age now, but two that come to mind where both petrol garage promotions.
First one, 80’s I think. Collect 6 vouchers, would typically get 1 or 2 every fill up, for a free glass. Sherry, Champs, pretty sure there were others. I would only use that chain for them. Still got them. It is difficult to not see them in most charity shops now, and I will always point them out proudly to the Mrs.
Even older. 70s? World Cup ‘coins’, you got one of every time so much was spent. Basically the England World Cup squad that went in a collection folder. I loved them. Still remember my excitement every time my dad, rest his soul, would bring home a new coin.
The Walkers promotion where if you correctly predicted an area of the UK would have rain on a particular day, you won cash.
Rains an awful lot in the North West 😉
I remember McDonalds giving out little red pedometers as Happy Meal ‘toys’ in the early noughties. I think it would have been around the time Jamie Oliver was waging a war against fast food for making kids fat – almost certainly not a coincidence.
Walkers Star Wars Tazos
https://preview.redd.it/1hapgwm8dqne1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c29cfaba79ceee3035e8a050e78c6ce69bded3b
I remember winning £20 in a packet of Walkers as a kid and my mum immediately took it off me and I never saw it again.
Not a promotion but I opened a bag of cheese and onion discos in primary school,and it was just the flavouring, not a single disco. 20g of pure powder roleplaying as cheese and onion, Best day of my life
I still think about my sprite and Fanta Yo-Yos. Such glorious days
Early 90s Smarties did this cool Wrap around shades promo, couldn’t wait to get my hands on them! Sadly, they hardly stayed on your face and was in danger of taking an eye out what they snapped back
When the phantom menace came out walkers gave away cash or a jar jar binks sticky tongue toy, I must have won at least 5 toys.
Anyone remember the filled-in Hula Hoop promotion where the prize was £100,000 ?
Yeah? Well, 5 year old me ate it. I wish I was joking.
Linx clicker
NatWest pigs (showing my age now)
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