McDonald's Monopoly

Every year I fall for it. I always say I won’t, but the prospect of potential victory lures me in. Even if I know, deep down, that I have no chance.

I’m talking about McDonald’s Monopoly.

When the nights get lighter and the air gets warmer, it begins. Every spring, I get my usual McDonald’s lunch, only to notice that the Monopoly promotion has begun. Collect three orange’s for a HP Notebook? Three pink’s for a Blackberry? Two dark blue’s for half a million pounds? Hell yeah, I’ll agree to that. And so, I’m no longer thinking about enjoying the taste of the food; I’m thinking about collecting enough tokens to get a reward.

Except . . .

Having collected them for four weeks, I have, amongst others,

two Park Lane

’s, three Bow Streets and more Pall Malls than would ever be necessary. I have every one on every street . . . besides the other one that would get me a prize. In other words, two out of three pinks, one blue, two greens. . . you get the idea.

Granted, I have got the option of getting a free cheeseburger and a free apple pie, but I didn’t collect tokens for them. Hey, if I wanted a cheeseburger or an apple pie, I’d buy one. Okay, you could say that about the Blackberry and the Notebook too, but hey, you can’t get a Notebook for a couple of quid. Unless you go to Ryman’s.

Anyway, my point is that, once again, I have been caught up in the dreaded trap of buying more Maccies in the hope of finding tokens. Even though some of the tokens seem to be distributed in such a way that they are far less in number than others.

And, as if the frustration caused by missing Mayfair or

Marlborough Street

isn’t enough, with a month to go before the expiry dates . . . the promotion ends! No, it doesn’t say the date that it finishes on the packets, it kind of just, well, ends. Which means, short of eating McDonald’s every day (look what it did to Morgan Spurlock in Super Size Me), and/or visiting every Maccies in the UK (imagine the petrol costs after doing that), all within a period of about four weeks, one has a very slim chance of actually winning any of the major prizes.

At least I’ve finally learned my lesson, though. As striking as the other M on the packet may seem next April, after six years of failed attempts, I have now realised that it is not worth trying to win on McDonald’s Monopoly. Granted, I’ll still be tucking into items such as Chips and Chicken McNuggets every now and then, but I won’t buy them purely to get those colourful little tokens.

Until it starts again . . .