diamond geezer

 Friday, October 30, 2015

Yesterday was London Poppy Day, when the Royal British Legion strikes out across the capital in attempt to raise £1m for its annual appeal. Thousands of uniformed personnel collected at stations, and some well known voices appeared over the tannoy urging passengers to dig deep. TfL takes Remembrance season very seriously, increasingly so each year, with poppies proudly emblazoned across buses, trains and stations.

Even the logo on TfL's Twitter feed has adopted a halo of poppies. That feed functioned pretty much as normal yesterday morning, with the first mention of London Poppy Day not appearing until 2.09pm.

Today is London Poppy Day and some famous people are making some special announcements on the Tube & Trams today http://ow.ly/TZMt7

And then six minutes later this happened.

All that money in buckets had seemingly encouraged TfL to organise a prize raffle for their followers. An unusual idea, but also a carefully planned campaign, as subsequent tweets made clear.

Win with our Poppy Day raffle. Send a pic of anything poppy-related on our network using #TfLPoppy more info here http://ow.ly/TZMVA

Yes, this was a Twitter-based raffle, inviting Londoners to take photographs of poppies and poppy branding on TfL property and share it on social media using the hashtag #TfLPoppy. The link at the end of the tweet was to the terms and conditions, a document 17 paragraphs long, and a necessity when organising a prize competition. But what would the prize be? At 2.30pm we found out.

Win an @AspinalofLondon bag via our Poppy Day raffle by posting a pic of anything poppy-related on TfL’s network until 7pm, adding #TfLpoppy

I bet nobody was expecting that. The prize for snapping a symbol of remembrance was a luxury leather handbag. I'm struggling to think of any logical reason why.

We’re supporting @PoppyLegion’s appeal in honour of the 4,500 transport workers who died in WWI & WWII

At 4.45pm, with the evening rush about to begin, TfL reminded everyone about their competition.

Win with our Poppy Day raffle. Send a pic of anything poppy-related on our network using #TfLPoppy more info here http://ow.ly/TXCeW

They're interesting terms and conditions.

In order to enter you must: a) use the following hashtag on Twitter: #TfLPoppy; and b) reply to a Competition Tweet with an image of one of the following:
i. a TfL poppy wrapped vehicle, for example, a London Underground train, a DLR Train or a London Overground or
a bus;
ii. a poppy branded London Underground or DLR station; or
iii. a London Underground, DLR or London Overground train with a poppy.

I dare say the people who entered photos of Waterloo station concourse, last year's Tower of London moat or a bus in Reading hadn't read that one.

The Competition period runs from 29 October 2015 (“the Opening Date”) and ends on 13 November 2015 (“the Closing Date”) (inclusive). There will be two separate free prize draws each working day (not including the weekend) during this period. The first prize draw will run from 07:00 GMT to 13:00 GMT, and the second prize draw will run from 13:00 to 19:00 GMT.

This isn't a one-off, oh no. TfL plan to repeat their prize draw twice each weekday from now until mid-November, that's twelve days in total, presumably with a different prize each time. Intriguingly Remembrance Sunday this year is on 8th November, so the promotion is scheduled to run one full week after our national commemoration, and two days beyond the two minute silence.

The winner of each prize draw will be selected at random each day by the Promoter and the decision is final.

I hope you saw that coming. This isn't a competition, it's a raffle, so the winner won't be selected on creative merit. It's just as likely to be Maggie's opportunistic DLR poppy grab as Sophia's clever combination of old and new buses.

Tweet a pic of a poppy branded Tube train, Overground train, bus or poppy branded station using #TfLPoppy to win an @AspinalofLondon bag

By my calculations, once you weed out all yesterday's participants who posted the wrong thing or missed the deadline, each had a one in six chance of walking off with a top quality leather handbag. Because this apparently is what the Poppy Appeal is all about.

Win an @AspinalofLondon bag via our Poppy Day raffle by posting a pic of anything poppy-related on our network until 7pm, adding #TfLPoppy

A digital tombola to win luxury branded goods by sharing a photo of a symbol that commemorates our nation's fallen. It's either a inspired campaign to boost awareness of remembrance, or exploiting our war dead to flog handbags.

TfL Poppy raffle prizes
	morning prize	afternoon prize
Thu 29	(no prize)	an @AspinalofLondon bag
Fri 30	a @TimeOutLondon Card	tickets to @WinterWonderLDN
Sat 31	an afternoon tea @hotelcaferoyal	tickets to @WarHorseOnStage
Sun 1	tickets to @TheLondonEye	tickets for @ThamesRIBExp
Mon 2	tickets to Sea Life @london_aquarium	an experience on the flight simulator & a ride on @EmiratesAirLDN
Tue 3	a meal-for-two @HardRockLondon	a chocolate-making class @paxtonchocolate
Wed 4	tickets to Bond in Motion@ldnfilmmuseum	one of @PenhaligonsLtd fragrances for ladies or gents
Thu 5	go climbing with @archclimbing	tickets to Vogue 100: A Century of Style @NPGLondon
Fri 6	a dinner cruise @citycruises – a brilliant river experience	a Sushi-making class @YOSushi
Sat 7	(no prize draw)
Sun 8
Mon 9	a night’s stay & breakfast for 2 at the InterContinental @ICParkLane	a chance to race for free with @RevolutionKarti
Tue 10	an amazing prize from @goodlifeeatery	a Street Art Tour with @AlternativeLdn
Wed 11	tickets for @rooftopfilmclub Underground Film Club	dinner or lunch for two worth £100 @Galvin_brothers
Thu 12	a snowboard/ski beginner’s lesson for two thanks to @SnozoneMK	a mixology class with @ZebranoBars
Thu 12	it’s all fun and games @clueQuestLondon	a star quality bowling experience with a £150 voucher from @allstarlanes

posted 07:00 :

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