A Chevrolet car dealership in Washington thought it had the perfect promotion. The Seattle Seahawks were playing the New York Giants in a game that really meant nothing for both teams. The ‘Hawks had all but earned the no. 1 seed in the NFC and the Giants, well the Giants were already eliminated in what has turned out to be a nightmare of a season.
So with nothing left but pride at stake, Jet Chevrolet in Federal Way, Washington decided that it was the perfect time to do a promotion. Thinking of the perfect way to do it, the geniuses ultimately decided to offer $35,000 each to 12 different people if New York laid a goose egg against Seattle.
The entries were doled out to those who bought cars and those who just wanted to take a stab at the promo.
Sounded like a full proof plan, right? After all, the Giants hadn’t been held scoreless in a game at home since 1995 and the odds favored New York to at least score one field goal.
Then the game happened and the final score turned out being 23-0.
Just like that, the nice people at Jet Chevrolet found themselves out $420,000. Whoops.
“This is crazy,” Jim Johnson, one of the owners of the dealership, told ESPN. “We never expected that we’d actually be giving away the money.”
Making things worse for the dealership was Johnson’s admission that the promotion was supposed to run a week ago when the Seahawks faced the San Francisco 49ers, a game that the Niners ended up winning 19-17. Unfortunately, logistics issues pushed it a week later and now, the dealership is now staring at a bill they never expected.
The dealership did take out insurance, which cost them $7,000, meaning that they won’t have to pay for all of their ill-fated promotion.
Maybe next time they can do something revolving around the probability of a member of the Seahawks testing positive for PEDs.
Oh, wait…
