8
Somebody else's wedding
Radio stations have given away weddings, honeymoons, and in one notorious case, the spouse.
Wedding giveaways are standard: a venue, a dress, a photographer, a cake, all donated by suppliers who get the publicity. Everyone is happy and nothing strange happens.
Then there is the other genre. In 2000 Fox aired a special in which a woman married a man she had never met, chosen because he was described as a multimillionaire. He was not, particularly. The marriage was annulled within weeks and the network never aired it again.
Several radio stations have run versions since. The consistent lesson is that a prize which requires a second person to consent to something is not really a prize, it is a plot.
The regulatory problem is just as awkward. A prize whose delivery depends on a third party agreeing to something cannot be guaranteed, and a promotion that cannot guarantee its advertised prize is on thin ice with every consumer regulator that looks at it.