They thought they were one-and-the-same.” So during the 1980s when there was a tremendous amount of TV advertising, people got these ads mixed up. When we ran TV commercials, they would go on air with TV ads. Todd Sloane of Publishers Clearing House told Forbes in a 2012 retrospective of the two companies, “American Family Publishers was set up to directly compete with us. However, this competition ended up working out quite well for the established sweepstakes operator. To compete with the PCH monopoly, a group of publishers led by Time Magazine launched American Family Publishers and their own sweepstakes, offering $10 million at one point. This allowed PCH to pocket a significant percentage of subscription fees. Publisher’s Clearing House and their ubiquitous direct mail advertisements had become so powerful in the magazine industry by the 1980s by driving circulation numbers, and thus advertising rates. By 1979, Publishers Clearing House (PCH) had distributed over $7 million to some 2.3 million winners, most of whom weren’t driving revenue to the company. The sweepstakes explosion in the 1960s and 70s led to a unique situation where magazine publishers were often paying out more to non-subscribers or the “no purchase necessary to enter” crowd than to those who subscribed. Reader’s Digest was one of the first to the party in 1962 having awarded nearly a million dollars a year until the end of the 1970s. Blair, estimated it controlled some 80 percent of the corporate sweepstakes market (like the ones in children’s breakfast cereal) in 1979. However, it was the publishing industry that realized the full power of sweepstakes in driving sales, especially for magazine subscription. Industry experts told the New York Times that the industry hit a stride in the 1960s as consumer products struggled to gain attention in an increasingly crowded space. But sweepstakes can be very lucrative for private enterprise. Otherwise, they effectively operate the same. The primary modern distinction between a lottery and a sweepstakes is that the latter cannot require purchase for entry. Even George Washington participated as an investor in a lottery that included land, livestock and people (i.e. Bell/Flickr) The sweepstakes industry can generate a lot more than junk mailĪmerica has quite a long history of lotteries and sweepstakes. Today’s Tedium is looking at the Publishers Clearing House and why they’re suddenly offering prizes that only pay out, in part or in whole, after you die. Marketing ploys to children are nothing new but the methods and prizes used speak volumes of the audiences enticed by a chance to win. The most likely candidate for the specific book in the series is Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt, which encouraged readers to solve it themselves and enter their solutions in order to win prizes. Even at age eight, it seemed like a strange character detail. Sobol, went out of his way to explain that this character entered various contests/sweepstakes as a hobby. Today in Tedium: There’s a character from the Encyclopedia Brown series that has been burrowed in my head for nearly 25 years now, though the specific book and case escape me. Hey all, Ernie here with an odd question: Would you be interested in winning a sweepstakes if it meant a loved one of yours could inherit the winnings if you die? Andrew Egan posits the answer in today’s piece.
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