If you think you can ‘quench’ the temptation to reach for your smartphone every two seconds, Vitaminwater’s latest competition could be a big moneyspinner for you in 2019.
The drinks giant is offering a mouthwatering $100K to anyone who can stay off their smartphone for a whole year. What, a whole year of no dog-face Snapchat overlays, how on Earth are we expected to survive that?
The rules are pretty simple: Put down your smartphone for a year and go around living your life like your parents and grandparents did when growing up. To enter, phone fans are told to head to either Twitter or Instagram and use #nophoneforayear alongside a description of what a year without a smartphone would look like.
It sounds like a pretty easy deal considering you’re still allowed to use your laptop — hooray Facebook updates about not being able to use a smartphone — and home devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home Hub.
Vitaminwater will also provide you with a feature phone to make sure you aren’t completely cut off from the world/stranded in the middle of nowhere with no way to call for help. You’ll be given a “1996-era cellular telephone that may be used for communication during the contract time period, including a monthly phone plan accompanying the phone.”
Spending a year playing Snake on the Nokia 3310 and reading all those books you’ve never got past Page 2 on sounds like a pretty good idea, but it won’t be that simple. You can’t even touch another person’s smartphone, and after 365 days, a brutal lie detector test will determine whether you’re worthy of the $100K. What is this, Meet the Parents? The full list of rules can be found on the Vitaminwater competition site.
The contest is open now and will close on January 8. Entries will be judged on creativity (30%), brand relevance (30%), humour (30%), and grammar/spelling (10%). If you want a chance, it sounds like you’ll have to say why Vitaminwater (owned by Coca-Cola) is the greatest.
Sure, you might get the odd sneer that you haven’t got the latest iPhone XVX with breath sensor and 3D printer attached, but that $100K will soon have people laughing on the other side of their face.
Vitaminwater assures us that it’ll stump up the cash, so give it a go. There is one more thing though. You’re probably reading this very article, right now, on a smartphone. If that’s the case, you’ve probably already failed.
