http://www.thestar.com/life/20...u_win_gallinger.html
TARA WALTON / TORONTO STAR
Promotional contests can turn a simple gesture — like buying a friend a coffee — into an ethical
What is the social expectation for promotional contests such as the “Roll up the rim” campaign? Many people buy these products for friends, often without any expectation of being paid back. But what happens if that friend wins something? Something small, like a coffee or doughnut, is of no consequence unless the person is really picky. But what about a larger prize, like a car? Who has the right to get that car — the person who purchased the winning cup, or the person who was given the coffee?
I must caution, once again, that this is an ethics column, not one offering legal counsel. A lawyer might give a different answer than I. He’d also charge more.
The key question here is whether the purchase of the prizewinning coffee was a transaction, or a gift.
More at thestar.com:
There are many situations where someone picks up coffee for a colleague on the way to work each morning, and the recipient, as a matter of course, pays for it. It doesn’t matter whether the particular winning cup was paid for. On any given day, there could be lots of reasons why payment doesn’t transpire; perhaps the recipient doesn’t have the exact change, or maybe the idea is that, at the end of the week, she simply gives the buyer a ten-spot and they are both satisfied that “that’s close enough.”
Arrangements like this are transactional; for whatever reason (that’s another question), one person agrees to pick up coffee, and another agrees to pay, at the very least for their own. So if the recipient is fortunate enough to rrroll a new car, then it’s hers to keep, without guilt or obligation. She made a deal, even if tacitly, to purchase the cup, and was expected by the coffee-courier to do so; she gets the prize.
The trickier situation is the one in which I buy an extra coffee and simply give it to you, because I’m a nice guy (which no one would ever dispute).
On the one hand, there’s a basic, and important, principle that “a gift given is a gift given.” Once I give something to you, it is no longer mine in any sense; it is 100-per-cent yours. I didn’t lend it to you, and my gift was without conditions because (remember this) I’m a nice guy. So when you roll up that rim, it’s your rim to roll, and I have no claim whatsoever to those spiffy new wheels that are parked, glaringly, in your driveway.
But on the other hand, this is a situation where at least a modicum of grace is called for. I did, after all, give you a gift. No, you don’t have to share the car, and I really don’t want you to take me for a ride to show off how cool it is (I’m not that nice). But some significant expression of appreciation is in order.
I’m not looking for cash; that would feel a bit tawdry. But you could buy me a coffee card that would cover my java for the next year or so. And, incidentally, I drink several large cups a day.
