Bus Radio has a new contest. This time it’s aim at children riding school buses and not bus drivers.
The contest is open to those "between the ages of 5 and 18." What!?
No child is out-of-bounds for this company. Here is a picture taken from the first page of their Busradio.com site:
Look how young these young people look. This photo was done on purpose. Bus Radio wants to get the youngest "on board" with Bus Radio.
Below is the entry form a child needs to fill out to enter the contest. Bus Radio of course doesn’t care about whether a child has a "best friend" or not. They are interested in driving more and more children to their web site. "Hits" on the web site mean money for the Bus Radio Fat Cat Executives. Contests likes these are very inexpensive for Bus Radio and can pay off with increased web traffic.
It would be instructional to read through Bus Radio’s "Official Rules." Bus Radio’s attorney writes in a lot of protection for Bus Radio Fat Cat Executives but not much for kids. Do children signing up for this contest know that they are turning giving Bus Radio the right to use their image for Bus Radio’s financial gain? A sentence deep in this fine print says Bus Radio will be able to use a child’s picture to promote Bus Radio and further that Bus Radio won’t pay the child or their parents any money for doing this. No child could anticipate Bus Radio wanting to take advantage of them in this way. How many parents will read these "Official Rules"?
On the entry form, Bus Radio offers children down to 5 the chance to send a picture of himself or herself to the company. That would be a terrible thing for any child to do. Parents have no idea Bus Radio is soliciting pictures of their child. Will Bus Radio post these pictures on the Internet? If a child is unfortunate enough to win this contest then it appears that Bus Radio will indeed plaster the child’s photo on their web site. This contest should concern all parents – if they only knew.
| Here’s the fine print Bus Radio wants elementary school kids to read and understand. |
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"BusRadio BFF" Contest OFFICIAL RULES NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS CONTEST. DATES OF PROMOTION: The BusRadio “BFF” (the “Contest”) begins at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on March 3, 2008 and ends at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on March 14, 2008 (the “Contest Period”). ELIGIBILITY: The Contest is open to members of BusRadio.com who are legal residents of the 50 United States including the District of Columbia and are between the ages of 5 and 18 at the time of entry. Employees and their immediate family members (parents, children, siblings or spouse, regardless of where they live, or persons living in same household, whether related or not) of BusRadio (the “Sponsor”), its parent companies, contractors, subsidiaries, distributors, sales representatives, retailers, advertising and promotion agencies, and any others engaged in the development, production, execution or distribution of this Contest are not eligible to participate. Void where prohibited. HOW TO ENTER: Contest entries will be accepted via the methods below: WINNING: At the end of the contest period, all eligible entries will be judged by a qualified panel of judges on the basis of: (a) Creativity (34%), (b) Originality (33%) and (c) Clarity (33%). In the event of a tie, the entries involved will be re-judged by an additional judge who will serve as a tiebreaker and evaluate such tied entries according to the criteria listed above. All judging of eligible entries will be under the supervision of an independent panel of judges, whose decisions are final in all matters relating to this Contest. Two (2) winners will be chosen. Winners will be announced on air via BusRadio on or by March 18, 2008 and on BusRadio.com. PRIZES: POTENTIAL WINNER NOTIFICATION / QUALIFICATION: Sponsor will attempt to contact potential winners via phone after the Contest entry period is over. If the potential winner is not reached, each potential winner (or their parent or legal guardian if winner is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) must respond to the Sponsor via phone within five (5) business days of Sponsor’s notification, or they will be subject to disqualification. If a potential winner (or their parent of legal guardian, if winner is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) fails to respond within the stated time period, that potential winner will be disqualified and an alternate potential winner will be selected in accordance with the judging criteria outlined in the “Winning” Section of these Official Rules. In order for a potential winner to be declared an Official Winner, he/she (or his/her parent or legal guardian if winner is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) must prove eligibility to Sponsors satisfaction, as well as a complete shipping address, within five (5) days of sponsors sending the legal documents which Sponsor may require (including a W-9 tax form). In addition, Official winner (or his/her parent of legal guardian if winner is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) may be required to sign an affidavit; (a) releasing Sponsor from any and all liability, claims, demands and causes of action for personal injury and/or damage, theft or loss suffered in connection with this Contest, or the use or acceptance of the prizes or any portion thereof to be eligible for the Prize; and (b)where permitted by law, granting Sponsor the right to use his/her name, voice and likeness for advertising and publicity purposes without additional compensation. Prizes will not be awarded until all such requirements are met. Winner (or their parent or legal guardian if winner is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) is required to comply with any and all applicable federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations. GENERAL RULES OF PARTICIPATION: This Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws. By participating, entrants (or their parent or legal guardian if entrant is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) and their participating entities agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor and waive any right to claim ambiguity in the Contest or these Official Rules. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, undeliverable or incomplete entries, whether due to system errors or failures, faulty transmissions or other telecommunications malfunctions, entries not received resulting from any hardware or software failures of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, failed, incomplete or garbled computer or telephone transmissions, typographical or system errors and failures, faulty transmissions, technical malfunctions, or otherwise. Sponsor may prohibit an entrant (or their parent or legal guardian if entrant is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) from participating in the Contest or winning a prize if, in its sole discretion, it determines that said entrant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest by cheating, hacking, deception, or other unfair playing practices (including the use of automated quick entry programs) or intending to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other entrants, Sponsor, or Contest Entities. If for any reason this Contest is not able to be conducted as planned, including, but not limited to, by reason of infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or any other causes beyond the reasonable control of Sponsor which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Contest, then Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest and judge from those entries received up to the cancellation/suspension date. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN ENTRANT OR ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE THE WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK REMEDIES AND DAMAGES (INCLUDING ATTORNEY’S FEES) FROM ANY SUCH ENTRANT TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, INCLUDING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION. NO LIABILITY: By participating, entrants (or their parent or legal guardian if entrant is not the age of majority in his/her state of residence) agree to release, discharge, indemnify and hold harmless the Contest Entities and each of their respective officers, directors, employees, representatives and agents from and against any claims made by winners, entrants, or any other third parties, related in any way to the operation of this Contest as well as any other claims, damages or liability due to any injuries, damages or losses to any person (including death) or property of any kind resulting in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from acceptance, possession, misuse or use of any prize or participation in any Contest-related activity or participation in this Contest. SPONSOR: This Contest is brought to you by BusRadio, 160 Gould Street, Suite 201, Needham, MA 02494. BusRadio is not and does not claim to be directly affiliated with Samsung™ or any of their products that we give away. The Samsung™ trademarks, logos, and products found in this Contest are the property of Samsung™. BusRadio does not claim in any way to represent or own any of Samsung’s™ trademarks or rights. None of Samsung’s™ products listed on our sites endorse, or promote BusRadio or any of its websites. |
