I MIGHT have missed out on the Lottery (again) but what’s this?
Those nice people at Coca-Cola had sent me an email saying I had won £1m!
“Your email ID has won £1m in the Coca-Cola online promotion,” said their brief but welcome message from Ellie Carrisalez.
I mean, it was so welcome it should have been covered with smiley faces.
Ellie supplied the email address of a “fiduciary” agent to claim my prize.
But, wait a minute.
Coca-Cola is the world’s most valuable brand. The drink is sold in more than 200 countries around the globe. Its sign is universally recognised. It has assets of $80 billion and an annual net income of $8.6 billion. Why does it need to hold an email lottery that no one has ever heard of?
Oo-er, could this be a scam? A way to get the gullible to respond in hope and provide personal banking details or pay a clearance fee?
Of course it is, just one of many that, in the past, has included lots of major companies from Microsoft to Victoria’s Secrets.
Coca-Cola, by the way, was launched in 1886 as a health drink with the claim that it could cure morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache and impotence.
I don’t know about morphine addiction and impotence but I have to confess that it was always my hangover cure of choice in my younger days.
A glass of cold Coke was a morning-after lifesaver and I still drink it when I have an upset stomach.
It could be that its early popularity and potency had something to do with the fact that each glass contained nine milligrams of cocaine. Enough to put a smiley face on anyone.
Don’t all rush at once. They removed the drug 100 years ago.
