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Monopoly Mayhem: The Great McScam · Children of the 80s

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Children of the Eighties is brought to you by Q
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: one O six point five Internet Radio. You can find
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: it online at Q one o six five dot com
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: or download the app.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Children of the Eighties. I am one
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: of your hosts, Jim, and I am joined as always
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: by the lady who has never met a fialo fish
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  Speaker 2: that she liked. It's my co host, Lindsey.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: You know, that's all I would eat is a kid
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  Speaker 1: is the falal fish, fileo fish? Really the fish show full.
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  Speaker 2: Tell my memo was she would only eat the fialo fish.
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  Speaker 2: So my dad tells a story that when they were young,
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  Speaker 2: the McDonald's came to them, you know, near them. They
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: weren't a traveling circus. It wasn't like Barnum and Bailey.
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  Speaker 1: Couldn't refuse no.
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  Speaker 2: But so McDonald's open close to where they lived, and
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  Speaker 2: so of course they went and uh, they all got hamburgers,
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  Speaker 2: and my mem all been into one and started chewing one,
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  Speaker 2: and she made a face and my dad said what
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  Speaker 2: and she just kind of, you know, scruffed up her
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  Speaker 2: nose at it, like she didn't like it. And he
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  Speaker 2: said he pointed to the science says over a million served,
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  Speaker 2: and her response was, I wonder how many of them
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  Speaker 2: have been eaten.
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  Speaker 1: She was quick on her feet, that memal she.
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  Speaker 2: Was, and so she would always get a fileo fish. Right.
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  Speaker 2: She would never deny her grandkids anything. So you know
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  Speaker 2: when grand babies wanted to go to McDonald's because clearly
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  Speaker 2: McDonald's put crack in their food for kids, Uh, she
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  Speaker 2: would just order fileo fish. I always wondered why I'd
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  Speaker 2: get a hamburger, she'd get a filet of fish.
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  Speaker 1: My house, we called that a fishow file a.
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  Speaker 2: Now why did you do that?
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  Speaker 1: Because it seemed to flow better a fishow file at
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  Speaker 1: if you say so. Okay, So before we get too
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  Speaker 1: deep in the madness that is this episode, let's back up,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sure we've got something else we need to
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  Speaker 1: touch on briefly before we get into the meat of
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  Speaker 1: our story.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you seem to strike up a new phrase
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  Speaker 2: last week that is going viral, much like nineteen eighty ten.
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  Speaker 2: You have invented the phrase We're gonna nope it on back,
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  Speaker 2: and so people are now using that.
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  Speaker 1: I love it the Lindsay lexicon.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, and so I posted on Twitter because we got
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  Speaker 2: a text from loyal listener and sometimes collaborator Deaf Dave
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  Speaker 2: with Haull notes on a phone on a corded phone,
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  Speaker 2: just like the nineteen eighties, singing nope It on back.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because we talked about the kitchen phone from the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighties being on the wall in the kitchen, so
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  Speaker 1: haul of notes. In this AI generated picture, they're standing
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  Speaker 1: in the kitchen.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I standing in a kitchen on the courted phone
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  Speaker 2: singing nope it on our back.
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  Speaker 1: I love it. You asked me, like, how much thought
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  Speaker 1: did I put in to that phrase before I said it?
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  Speaker 2: No, I just asked if you had heard it from
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  Speaker 2: somebody else?
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  Speaker 1: Just came out of my mouth. I put no thought
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  Speaker 1: into it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's usually what how most things happen with you
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  Speaker 2: over there. You just blurt stuff out.
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  Speaker 1: Do I do? I just throw it all against the
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  Speaker 1: wall and see what's which.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes is genius and sometimes it gets you in trouble.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, sometimes I put my big fat foot in my
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  Speaker 1: mouth too. So And you had to see daf Dave
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: again this week. Are you good? We're just h two
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  Speaker 1: times back to back.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. It was a lot of fun. Got to hang
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: out with him, have some lunch, he came down to
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  Speaker 2: the atl to purchase something, and so I was able
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to visit with him and and go to luncheon. We
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: got to watch Vanderbilt start to upset Alabama, but then
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: you know, that didn't happen, and I'm very thankful for
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  Speaker 2: that because my Missouri Tiger's play Alabama this Saturday, and
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  Speaker 2: I didn't need Alabama coming in very mad that they
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  Speaker 2: had lost to the Vanderbilt nerded doors. So a good
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  Speaker 2: time was had by all.
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  Speaker 1: I love it. What else we got going on?
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  Speaker 2: Well, uh, you mentioned last week that we were living
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  Speaker 2: the dream and uh, yeah, I've had trouble dreaming since then.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, it's been a it's been a rough week in
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  Speaker 1: the Butler house.
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  Speaker 2: I can't sleep. I'm waking up constantly. You know, It's
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  Speaker 2: just what you were gonna say.
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  Speaker 1: I'm waking up constipated. And I was like, oh, well
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  Speaker 1: you took it there.
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  Speaker 2: I can't sleep, Freddy Krueger's not even after me. I'm
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  Speaker 2: not trying to stay awake. I just can't sleep. And
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  Speaker 2: it's been Uh, it's been a rough go. In the morning,
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  Speaker 2: I could go to sleep right now, but you know what,
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  Speaker 2: I'd be up in an hour or two.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you probably would.
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  Speaker 2: I'd be and I'd be up for the rest of
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  Speaker 2: the night until about five am, four thirty maybe, and
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  Speaker 2: then the alarm would go off.
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  Speaker 1: And this is just it's true old man issue.
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  Speaker 2: I know. I don't like being an old man.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, old man rant.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's not my old man rant. My old man
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  Speaker 2: rant might get me fired from my job. So I'm
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  Speaker 2: just going to keep that to myself.
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  Speaker 1: Keep yeah, just keep that, keep that to yourself. So
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  Speaker 1: it has just been, uh, a busy, busy, busy week,
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  Speaker 1: and so I am excited to take a few minutes
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  Speaker 1: and kind of sit down here with.
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  Speaker 2: You, and we're going to decompress during this podcast, aren't
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  Speaker 2: we this podcast?
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  Speaker 1: I like with the way you're yawning, you might be
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  Speaker 1: going to sleep during this.
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  Speaker 2: Pot Well, that would definitely be decompressing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, if you go to while I'm talking, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to nope it on back.
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  Speaker 2: We are going to nope it on back.
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  Speaker 1: So we kind of had a loose idea of what
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  Speaker 1: we wanted to do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah we did. Are you ready to get to that
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  Speaker 2: or you got any other cleanup items? But I changed
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  Speaker 2: it up on you today. Oh you did? I didn't
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  Speaker 2: know this. We're not doing the episode I thought we
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  Speaker 2: were doing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh we're not. You've had so much stress going on
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  Speaker 1: at work, I decided to take over. Let me give you,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Let me give you the working title for today's episode,
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  Speaker 1: and you tell me if you know what we're going
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  Speaker 1: to talk about. Okay, The mech scandal, the rise and
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  Speaker 1: fall of.
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  Speaker 2: Mcdowells. What is McDowell from coming to America? John Amos
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  Speaker 2: had mcdowells. He was always being sued by McDonald's. He
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  Speaker 2: had the Golden arcs. They had the Golden Archs.
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  Speaker 1: So mc scandal, the rise and fall of McDonald's monopoly.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I used to play that. I used to think
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  Speaker 2: I was gonna win a million dollars. Guess what? Never did?
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  Speaker 1: He didn't?
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  Speaker 2: Did you no?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, before we get too deep into all of this,
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  Speaker 1: this is a podcast that looks back on the decade
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  Speaker 1: of the nineteen eighties. We talk about things that were
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  Speaker 1: important to us as children and what we look back
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  Speaker 1: on with fond memories as adults. Ultimately, this is a
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  Speaker 1: nostalgia podcast, so.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds to me like we're either getting nostalgic on
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  Speaker 2: monopoly or we're getting nostalgic on McDonald's or.
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  Speaker 1: Are we getting nostalgic on McDonald's Monopoly. Time will tell.
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  Speaker 2: McDonald's isn't a monopoly though, because there's Burger King, and
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  Speaker 2: there's Windy's, and there's Taco Bell.
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  Speaker 1: No dork the game Monopoly that you played at McDonald's
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  Speaker 1: once a year during the mid to late eighties and
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  Speaker 1: most of the nineties.
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  Speaker 2: With the guy with the top hat and the monocle, Yes,
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  Speaker 2: he didn't have a monocle. That's that's straight. What theory
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  Speaker 2: is that that we talked about a couple of years
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  Speaker 2: ago that I can't remember now. No, no, no, the
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  Speaker 2: Mandela effect, that's straight Mandela effect. People think that the
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  Speaker 2: monopoly guy has a has a monocle, but he doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: He started to say, it's the Mongolian.
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  Speaker 2: Effect, the Mongolian effects.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think that's what it is. Nope, Okay, folks
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  Speaker 1: can just imagine if we drank what this would be like.
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  Speaker 1: For some reason, McDonald's in the eighties was just those memories.
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  Speaker 1: It brings back so many warm feelings for me, so
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  Speaker 1: many feelings of nostalgia when I think about going to McDonald's,
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  Speaker 1: playing on the playground, at McDonald's, getting lunch at McDonald's,
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  Speaker 1: going to the drive through at McDonald's. So many memories
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  Speaker 1: are associated with McDonald You.
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  Speaker 2: Know what my memory associated with McDonald's is the few
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  Speaker 2: times that we did get to go. My parents would
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  Speaker 2: go through the drive through. They wo'd order as hamburgers
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  Speaker 2: or whatever. My brother Mike always had to get a
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  Speaker 2: plane cheeseburger, which meant that they had to cook it,
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  Speaker 2: and we sat in the drive through for ten to
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  Speaker 2: fifteen minutes just sitting there salivating waiting for our McDonald's.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, Mike, But.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know by asking for that, he ensured he
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  Speaker 1: got a fresh Well.
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  Speaker 2: I understand that. But now you can ask for a
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  Speaker 2: hamburger with no cheese and it comes out right away
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  Speaker 2: because they don't put the cheese on it, right. But
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  Speaker 2: back then they put the cheese and the pickles and
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  Speaker 2: the whatever on it, ketchup mustard onions and like it
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  Speaker 2: was just the It just came pre made. So when
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  Speaker 2: he ordered it that way, just playing cheese, yes, he
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  Speaker 2: did get it fresh, but they had to cook it
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  Speaker 2: from scratch. It was like they had to go slaughter
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  Speaker 2: the cow, right because these cows made cheeseburgers with ketchup
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  Speaker 2: and onions, and these cows didn't. So they had to
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  Speaker 2: go slaughter the cow and then age it and then
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  Speaker 2: cook the darn cheeseburger, the plane cheeseburger.
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  Speaker 1: But did he not like the onions, the pickle or
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  Speaker 1: the ketchup?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, but he wouldn't pick it off. And
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  Speaker 2: so therefore I had to wait ten to fifteen minutes
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  Speaker 2: each time for my McDonald's and I was never happy.
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  Speaker 1: There's always one in the family. So your family was Mike.
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  Speaker 1: In my family, it was me.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, did you order the plane or the whatever?
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  Speaker 1: I want to catch up? But I didn't want anything else.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't want no pickles are on it? See the
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  Speaker 2: onions are what? Mad it good? There was a little
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  Speaker 2: chomped up onions.
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  Speaker 1: No, no, no no.
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  Speaker 2: And then my mom said that she could make a
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  Speaker 2: McDonald's burger like McDonald's, you know, And I felt like
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  Speaker 2: the Eddie Murphy skit where she was asking for a
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  Speaker 2: green pepper. I was like, name, no green peppers and
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  Speaker 2: in McDonald's, you know.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, okay, So today we're taking a bite out
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  Speaker 1: of a story that's part nostalgia, part I.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Like what you did. They're taking a bite out of
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  Speaker 2: what are you? McGruff?
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  Speaker 1: Over there is the McDonald's monopoly game story.
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  Speaker 2: Do you see Jenney over there? If she goes into
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  Speaker 2: the McDonald's alone, you might not ever see her again.
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  Speaker 1: You remember going to McDonald's back in the nineteen eighties.
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  Speaker 1: You'd order your fries and you'd peel that little sticker
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  Speaker 1: off the fry carton or the drink cop you would pray.
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  Speaker 1: You would pray for a board wall.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so, so here's the deal. I don't remember this
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  Speaker 2: in the eighties. I remember it in the nineties.
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  Speaker 1: Oh really.
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  Speaker 2: I was in college in the nineties, and of course,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I ate a lot of McDonald's, right, and
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  Speaker 2: especially when they had Monopoly going, because I certainly didn't
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  Speaker 2: want to finish college and I didn't want to work
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  Speaker 2: for a living. I wanted my millions.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, the American dream.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, But yes, you did pray for the boardwalk.
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  Speaker 1: So you might pray for a boardwalk, but most likely
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  Speaker 1: you're getting maybe a free coke at best.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, But behind them a chance Nobody wants a chance card.
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  Speaker 1: But behind those little game pieces was one of the
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  Speaker 1: biggest marketing scandals of the late eighties in nineties.
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  Speaker 2: Is that why I never won?
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Possibly? This is a story of how a fast food
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  Speaker 1: game turned into a multi million dollar crime ring. But
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  Speaker 1: first I'm going to talk a little bit about McDonald's
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  Speaker 1: in general.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: A multimillion dollar crime ry so run by John Gottie.
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  Speaker 1: So back in the nineteen eighties, McDonald's wasn't just a restaurant.
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  Speaker 1: It was the hangout spot. It was the reward after school.
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  Speaker 1: It was the place for birthday parties. Did you know
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  Speaker 1: you could have a birthday party at McDonald's.
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  Speaker 2: I did not.
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  Speaker 1: It was a stop on a road trip. It was
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  Speaker 1: basically woven into our childhood. Except by the look you're
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  Speaker 1: giving me, I'm thinking it wasn't woven into your childhood,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: but it was mine.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't woven into my childhood. And I didn't get
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: any birthday parties anywhere because my birthday was too close
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: to Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Ah. So I have a memory of my uncle's first
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  Speaker 1: wife because he had four Okay, his first wife worked
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  Speaker 1: at McDonald's and I would I remember, we would go
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  Speaker 1: to see her and she would give me the little
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: box of yummy shortbread cookies. Yeah, you remember those.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, they were the characters, right, weren't they there, like
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  Speaker 2: the Hamburglar and Mayor mccheese and Ronald McDonald and Grimace.
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  Speaker 1: And there's nothing else out there that tasted anywhere close
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  Speaker 1: to as good as those little McDonald's cookies tasted back
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  Speaker 1: in the day. They don't do them anymore. So I'm
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: thinking there was probably something really bad in this. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure, But that's one of my earliest memories. I
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: want to say that may even have dated back to
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four. I don't think I ever had a
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: birthday party there, but I remember going to a birthday
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: party there. You could also order your cake directly from
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  Speaker 1: McDonald Really, they would do the cake for you. They would.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And of course i've told the story about playing on
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: the mcdonaldld's playground.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, you have told that story. But you always got
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: stuck in the Hamburglars jail.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Yes, I always got stuck up there because I was
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: too big to be climbing up, but I always wanted
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to because I wanted to be like everybody else. So
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: before we peel those monopoly stickers, let's set the stage
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: with the look back at McDonald's in the nineteen eighties,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: when Ronald ruled fries tasted better and the happy meal
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: was keen.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Fries definitely tasted better. You know what, they didn't have
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: a McDonald's that they had at my local dairy, Queen
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Miss pac Man in Sundays. Sundays blizzards.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Okay. The nineteen eighties were the company's biggest growth decade ever.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: McDonald's went from roughly five thousand restaurants in nineteen eighty
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: to ten thousand by nineteen ninety or nineteen eighty ten.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: The company introduced the famous slogan it's a good time
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: for the great taste of McDonalds.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Oh you remember that, I do?
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Okay? Chicken McNuggets debuted nationwide in nineteen eighty three.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: I remember that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Demand, listen to this demand was so massive that McDonald's
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: briefly ran out of chicken supply.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: It doesn't surprise me because I remember it being huge.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: And I also remember thinking that chicken nuggets were called McNuggets,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: so if I went somewhere else, I wanted some McNuggets.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, do you remember this? The and campaign featured a
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: McNugget choir singing, we love you nuggets.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: I do not remember I remember.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: That I do. Okay, So, until the mid nineteen eighties,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: McDonald's fries were cooked in a blend of beef tallow
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and vegetable oil, giving them that rich, unmistakable.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Flavor and a lot of people heart disease.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty five nineteen eighty six, after health concerns about cholesterol,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: McDonald's switched to one hundred percent vegetable oil. People women
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: now put beef tallow on their faces.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Well, then I'm gonna dip some McDonald's fries on their faces.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: McDonald's was the king of giveaways in the nineteen eighties. Okay,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you remember the glasses of course, gas food rest.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Don't we still have some?
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: We thought?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, So nineteen eighty three they did snoopy glasses.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Huh.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about like wear glasses.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: No, you're talking about glass. You're talking about glass drink
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: where they weren't cups, No, they were glass, they were glass.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty seven they did the muppets yep. And then
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: they did McDonald land character mugs, which I feel like
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: I thought they did glasses as well for that, but
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: maybe I'm misremarded. No, no, no, I no, you're not. I
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: specifically remember Ronald McDonald Taul Glass, and I believe you
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: have one here.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I promise you will have one here somewhere.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I feel like Hamburglar maybe I know is on the glass. Anyways,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: So the Happy Meal was introduced to Nashley in nineteen
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: seventy nine and it dominated the eighties, especially with the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: movie tie ins that they did. So do you remember
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: they were really big on cross promotion. Yes, So the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: movies that came out like et Batman, Ghostbusters, do you
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: remember all of those? They all had some kind of
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: connection to the Happy Meal like a little.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Toy, a little toy, and then the Happy Meal box
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: would be decord and what it was.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I collected all the McDonald's toys and I wish so
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: much that I still had that.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Oh my good Can.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: You imagine if I still had them, they would just
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: line the walls in here.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: No, I'm saying, oh my goodness, because you have a
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: little mini me that collected all the McDonald's toys from
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: her Happy Meals over and over and over again, and
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: we eventually had to toss them.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I threw them away, just like my mom did
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: with my McDonald's toys history repeats yes, yes, yes, so
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: and I don't remember this, So I want to know
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: who remembers this. McDonald's wasn't just in commercials. It was
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: in movies. Nineteen eighty eight, Mac and Me, a full
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: blown McDonald's sponsored film featuring an alien who loves Big
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Max with the legendary dance scene inside of McDonald.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: You don't remember macing me?
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: No? Yeah, okay, they have no remembrance of that.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Believe Mac and Me looked like a mix between Johnny
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: five and Wally.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: That's a really good description.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Are you looking at mac and Me right now?
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: No? But I can picture it with that description. Are
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: you looking at out? No?
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I am not.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: McDonald's ran a promotion for the nineteen eighty four Los
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Angeles Olympics called When the US Wins, You Win. Customers
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: got scratch cards with Olympic events printed on them. If
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the team USA won gold in that event, you got
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: free food.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Mac and Me did not look like a mix between
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Johnny five and Wally Mac. Mac and Me looked like
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: an inbred et.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, Oh what is that that is?
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Mac?
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Oh? You just should have come with a warning.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: I know. Look he looks like a milourished et. Who's
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the kid, uh, Brian Bonsel? No, I don't know, know,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: I look.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Like Sean asked him from here. Okay, So listen to this, though,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I feel like you're not paying attention.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: No, I'm just fascinated with mccam. He's got huge eyes,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: he's got yoda ears, he's got puffy cheeks, he's got
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: a bald head, and he looks like he may have
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: been skinned alive.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Oh geez, that's things of nightmares right there.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, it'll hunt me in my dreams forever.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, So listen to this though. When the US wins,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: you win nineteen eighty four promotional that McDonald's DIDs customers
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: got scratch cards with Olympic events printed on them. If
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: team USA won gold in that event, you got free food.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Do you know what the problem was with that?
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: That the US won everything that year?
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics that year. Therefore, the US
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: won a ton of gold medals. McDonald's ended up giving
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: away millions of free Big Max fries and cokes, way
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: more than they had expected.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: So that's why they gonna rip us off with a monopoly.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Then it's rumored McDonald's lost over ten million dollars in
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: giveaways that summer. Wow, that's insane.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: I bet the person who came up with that idea
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: got fired.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Right, Okay, let's talk about what the prices for the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: different food items were in the nineteen eighties.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: So hold on, hold on, hold, can I guess you're like,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: just give me a give me a menu item and
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I'll guess. Okay, a big Mac, A big Mac ninety
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: nine cents a dollar sixty Oh, okay, I was way off.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Happy meal, A happy meal would have been two twenty
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: five dollar ninety nine.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, an average combo meal.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Don't They didn't have combo meals back in the eighties.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Well, this thing I'm reading says it was under three dollars.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it may have been, but they but there
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: were no combo meals. You ordered to a la carte?
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Were Hamburger's fifty nine cents?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, yes, good job. Okay. Nineteen eighty seven is
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: when the first monopoly promotion debuted, and that's what we're
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: going to talk about today.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: You know what, Hamburgers were fifty nine cents. Plain cheeseburgers
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: were sixty nine cents. And half of your life.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Oh have I shared on the podcast about Papa Nanny buying.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, when they went down to it like a quarter
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: or something. If the cheeseburgers went on sale for like
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: a quarter.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if they went on sale, they would run a
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: sale where the cheeseburgers would be I don't remember, like
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: fifty nine cents and the hamburgers would be forty nine
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: cents or something like that, I don't remember. So Nanny
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: would send me and Papa to the McDonald's to buy
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: like a couple of dozen of each, and she put
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: him in the freezer and she would thaw them out
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and we ate those for months and months and months.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: I bet that tasted about as good as when people
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: freeze their wedding cake and then open it back up
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: a year later.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I think about that and kind
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: of the ridiculousness that that that is. But you know,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: they were from the the greatest generation. Like they they
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: lived at the depression, right like she's she knew a
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: good deal when she saw it.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: She knew how to be frugal.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: And she would make homemade French fries in the frying
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: pan and and you ate it and you didn't like it,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: then you didn't eat.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, I know. That's how my family
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: was too. If you didn't like it, you didn't eat.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: But you also I don't remember ever having the guts
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: to complain like Emmy would complain in a heartbeat.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Oh in a second.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I never. I didn't.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: I knew better. Yeah uh well, I mean I probably
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: learned that lesson. I may not have known better at first,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: but I bet you I learned that lesson at some point.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I also knew that if I ate it and didn't complain,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I would get dessertd okay. So so nineteen eighty seven,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: they were already the biggest fast food chain in the world,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: but sales had started to level off a little bit
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and they needed a new gimmick, something fun, something fast,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: and totally addictive. That's when their marketing agency, Simon Marketing,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: came up with a genius idea combined two American icons,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: McDonald's and Monopoly.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Mcnopoly.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: The concept was simple. You'd mi select menu items fries, burgers, drinks,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and you would get stickers that represented Monopoly properties, and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: if you collected a full set, and boom, you'd win
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: that prize. So I remember you would get the board
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: which you play it off of, would be like in
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the Sunday Paper. I think you could also get it
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: maybe from the store. I remember if you got it
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: from the Sunday Paper, you got like two free bonus pieces.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: You've probably got Mediterranean Baltic, Yeah right.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Because who wants those? I even used the actual Monopoly
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: games and board and colors with permission from Hasbro. It
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: felt just like the board game, only greasier. You see
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: what they did?
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Oh? I see?
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: So, and those prizes that you would win, the big
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: prizes would be cars, vacations, even a million bucks heart disease. Yes,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: but it turned meal time into a game. Every fry
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: box was a chance.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It was like playing the lottery at Glory, playing
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: the lottery, only you got to eat.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: McDonald's even branded it the Thrill of the Peel. You
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: remember that the Thrill of the.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Peel sounds like something that that Shaquita Bananas should come
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: up with.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Families traded pieces, co workers compared collections, and kids became
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: little property moguls. So this is where I pause and
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I make a confession. Confess, I don't even think this
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: is something that I've ever told you, but I can't
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: wait to hear if this is something I've shared with
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: you or not. I played this game obsessively. I plotted
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: every day trying to figure out how I could get
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: someone to take me to McDonald's so I could order
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: something to get the little play piece, or can I
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: just convince somebody to give me their playing pieces. I
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: was just constantly trying to figure out how to win,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and I went to school bargaining with people on how
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I could get their playing pieces.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, you were being a little hustler.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, I hustled because it never crossed my mind that
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: this was rigged.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Never cross my mind either. And I'm talking about like
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: in the nineties when I was in college. So I
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: worked at a gas station that was right next door
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: to a McDonald's. So if they had the monopoly thing
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: going on, basically one meal a day when I was working,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I was eating McDonald's.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: That well, that might explain a lot. Yeah, that I'm
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: an idiot, So I was.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Still in shape then.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I've I've been thinking today about what peace could it
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: have been that I'm referencing. I think it must have
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: been Pennsylvania Avenue, North Carolina Avenue, in the Pacifices.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: I played some monopoly back in my day though, so.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: If you got all three of those, you would win
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: two hundred grand that they said went towards a dream home. Well,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I had two and I needed the third one. And
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I went to school and I was lobbying in the
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: place ground for who had that third piece, and somebody
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: told me that they thought their cousin had it and
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: we might could get together.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: And make a trade.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Well, like, we could go in together and I had
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the two, they had the one, and we could win
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the prize together. So I was like, okay, call me.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: So they called me that afternoon and she was like,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I've confirmed with my cousin. He has Pennsylvania Avenue. So
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I had North Carolina Avenue and Pacific Avenue. He had
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Avenue and he's in Well. In the meantime between
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: the playground and getting home from school, she had pissed
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: me off. She had done something and I don't remember
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: what it was, probably not much, but she had pissed
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: me off. And like I answered the phone, She's like, hey, Lindsay,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: this is Alyssa. And I went who He's like, Alyssa,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: whoever from from school, and I'm like.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Who you were messing with her?
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: So then she tells me the whole about I talked
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to my cousin he's got the piece, and I'm like,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: I have no idea what you're talking about, okay, And
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: she's like, what do you mean you don't know? We
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: just talked about it on the playingground and I'm like,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: i have no clue what you're talking about. I've never
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: talked to you about this. I don't have the two
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: green pieces that you're referencing. And I'm sorry, I need
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: to go.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Muppet babies are on Okay, So I'm gonna stop you
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: right there because I'm gonna ask did this girl Alissa
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: does she Did she know what she did to make
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: you angry? Or was she like me, she was oblivious
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: and had no clue what sin she had committed against?
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Now thou so angry.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: She's like, so you're telling me that you lied to
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: me on the playground today when you told me you
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: had these two pieces. And I'm like mm hmm, yeah,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: that's that's what I'm saying.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: So you gave up a dream home out of sit
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: I did?
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I sure did?
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Well? You know what what that explains? A lot.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: She's like, I can't believe you lied to me, and
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yep, well I.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Did, but you didn't. You were lying to her right
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: then and.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: There, that's right. That phone call was a lie. So,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Alissa from Dolvin Elementary School, if you're listening, I lied.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I had those two green pieces.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Are you gonna apologize now?
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: No? I canna apologize. She shouldn't have pissed me off.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: What did she do?
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't remember. So had I ever
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: told you that story?
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: No? You had not.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Can you believe fifteen years and there's a story I
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: had never told you.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: I can't believe that there's a story you haven't told
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: me in fifteen years. I can believe that story, though.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine?
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Though?
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Two hundred grand back in nineteen eighty seven, that was
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of money.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: That would your engine?
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: And so and I remember she was like, well, now
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have to call my cousin and he's
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: going to be mad. And I'm like, sounds like a
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: U problem.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: That sounds like you two.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I just wasn't budging on though you weren't. No, No,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: And that's yeah, that sums me up. I'm still that stubborn.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: You know. I would say that Emmy got a double
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: dose of stubborn.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Did she did?
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: So?
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I've pulled up the McDonald's monopoly board games.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, so.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: The three green.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Pieces Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Pacific.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was two hundred thousand dollars cash to go
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: towards a better homes and gardens, dream home. Okay. The
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: three yellow.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Pieces Ntner, Atlantic City and Marvin Gardens. How do you
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: know this?
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: This is amazing. If you collected all three, you would
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: win a corvette.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Oh nice, wow, Okay, a little yellow corvette.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: If you collected the three red.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Pieces Indiana, Kentucky and New York. No, no, no, New
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: York is orange, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: This is insane. But you don't remember the anniversary of
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: our first date.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: September twenty ninth, two thousand and eight.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: We didn't celebrate. We missed it.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, you collected all three red pieces, you would win
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: a sea do.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Did you do you remember? Back in the day Seaedew's
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: were a big deal. They were.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: They were always giving them away on the price is right?
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: A sea do? It was always in the Showcase Showdown.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Is that something that you ever thought you wanted? Because
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: I remember back then be like, oh wow, yeah.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, a sea do? Yeah. No, I don't want
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: to see do.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: But I mean, how I live in Metro Atlanta. What
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: am I gonna do with the seed?
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: I lived in the Middle America? What am I gonna
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: do with a seed? Write it down? The Mighty Mississippi,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: the Old Maid Deep River.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, The three yellowish orangish pieces, New York Avenue.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, New York Saint James.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, third one is not coming to me. It's where
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: we went a couple of weeks ago, Tennessee. Yeah, you
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: could win a Gateway two thousand destination big screen PC
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: TV system.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what that is.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Either, but I'm sure at the time Little Lynds was like,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, what was I?
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Are you the mancho man?
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: The three pink Pieces?
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: St. Charles, Yep, think Charles, the only one I remember?
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Dates Avenue in Virginia. Yeah, you would win a vacation
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: for two to a Weston resort.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Oh, I could go to the Weston.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: The three pale blue pieces. Do you remember what they are?
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Connecticut? Vermont?
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: And I don't remember her Oriental Oriental.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: I collected all three of those. Win a Sony Mini
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: disc digital recording system. Oh nice, okay, the two Purple.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: One, the Baltic and Mediterranean.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, win a five dollars cash prize. I mean I
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: don't even know. Can you say five dollars is a
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: cash prize?
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: No, that's say five dollars. They want to slap you
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: in the face with that five.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Dollars right, the two blue pieces Boardwalk and park Place.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: That's the million dollars prize.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: But couldn't you win something if you collected all four
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: railroads B and O, short Line Pennsylvania and reading.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: You could win a Chevy Blazer and seede combo.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Oh a combo.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Get a combo.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: You could write your blazer in the sea? What you said,
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: a Chevy Blazer and a sea do combo, so you
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: blaze in the sea.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Not that kind of a comboa. The Chevy blazer is
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: going to tow your seedew to the water.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, because if I want a se do hum,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: I get it to the wall.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: Well that's what little lens never thought about. But adult
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: lens wonders now, like, what, okay, how am I gonna
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: get it there. McDonald's Monopoly quickly became an annual tradition.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Each fall it returned with new commercials, new prizes, and
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: that same electric feeling. People lined up to peel.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Most places I go people line up to pee.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good, you're old. The odds of winning, though,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: were ridiculous. Statistically, you had a better chance of getting
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: struck by lightning while eating fries finding the rare boardwalk
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: piece one in two hundred and fifty million. That didn't
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: That didn't matter, It.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: Didn't no, no, no, no.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: People still collected the game pieces like they were trading cards,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: and of course McDonald's loved it. Sales jumped by double
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: digits every time Monopoly came back. It was one of
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: the most successful marketing promotions in history. But here's something
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: that most people didn't know. McDonald's didn't actually run the game.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Their ad agency, Simon Marketing, handled the printing, shipping, and
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: prize distribution. And that's where things start to go very,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: very wrong. Okay, so before we dive into the criminal
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: side of this story, let's talk about what people were
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: actually winning during those Monopoly years. Because you're playing, you're
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: pealing to play. You're playing to peal.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: You're pealing to play, and you're probably winning a free coke.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: You might win a free large fry.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: You're hoping for that seedo. You're hoping for that.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: No, I was hoping for the mill two.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Hundred grand that I passed on. You're really hoping for
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: that million dollars, but what are you actually getting. Ninety
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: five percent of all prizes were for free food, fries, drinks,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: apple pies.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they did give away some apple pies here
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: and there.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Ed mcmuffins. Oh, and that was the brilliant marketing, right.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: You had to go back to McDonald's to redeem it,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: which meant more sales and more chances to peel again.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: So you were like stuck in the fishes cycle here.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Then you had that next tier, so the small cash prizes.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: So it was like mostly five dollars, sometimes ten dollars.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: As the game went on into the nineties, into the
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: late nineties, it may have gotten up to one hundred dollars.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I think I saw that somewhere, but that was if
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: you got really really lucky. So they also incorporated giveaways.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it would be like a CD player, a walkman
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Blockbuster gift cards, so basically everything.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: That screamed nineteen eighties.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: So I remember seeing the ads where people are winning
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the cars and the vacations and the money. Well, of course, yeah,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: I'm wanting so, but we never knew anybody that won it.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: We never won anything big. We never knew anybody that
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: won anything big. And the people that we knew didn't
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: know anyone that won anything big.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: You know what those people that were doing on the
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: commercials that won big.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Acting so which made us all think that we had
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: just like missed it right right, that we were just unlucky.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: But little did we know those winning pieces were already
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: in the wrong hands.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: In fact, every million dollar winner from nineteen eighty nine
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: all the way to two thousand and one turned out
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: to be connected to the same fraud ring.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: So this reminds me of the time in high school
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: when there were people that I knew. I wouldn't call
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: them friends, I would call them acquaintances, but I would
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: hang out with them sometimes, and they were telling me
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: the story about how they were at a party and
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: they had a big bottle of Jack Daniels and they
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: decided to not auctioned off. But like raffle it off.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, And so they collected a couple of buck
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: or a couple of bucks from everybody, so they're like
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: fifty people throwing in for the stake, and then they
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: rigged it to give it to their friend anywhere. I'm like,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: you couldn't have just had the fifty bucks, but then
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: you had to rig it and give it to your buddy.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Didn't get beat up.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: They weren't going to be messed with, okay.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: So while the rest of us were peeling for fries,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: someone else was peeling for the ferraris. And that's where
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: this story takes a while to turn. So incomes Jerome
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Jerry Jacobson.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Well there's your problem right there, Triple.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: J, head of security at Simon Market, the guy responsible
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: for protecting the integrity of the Monopoly game, which makes
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: it kind of ironic because he's the one who actually
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: broke it. Around nineteen eighty nine, Jacobson realized he could
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: easily pocket a few of the rare winning pieces before
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: they were sealed and shipped. At first, he gave them
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: to friends and family, but soon he started building a
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: network selling winning tickets to the middlemen for cash. One
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: of these middlemen Gennaro Jerry Colombo, a member of the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Colombo crime family, and suddenly McDonald's monopoly has a mob connection.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: I did mention John Gotti earlier, and I was just kidding.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Colombo helped distribute the stolen tickets through his network, taking
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: a hefty cut each time. But his run ended in
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight when he died in a car accident.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: And here's where the story takes a little bit of
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: a wild twist.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: It's not already a wild twist.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Not only I apologize, not only does it take a
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: wild twist, but it also flings us out of the
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. So don't judge me here all right, after
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Colombo's death, a network started to crumble. In two thousand,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: someone close to the operation who saw too many winners
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: cash in, made an anonymous call to the FBI's office.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: She told then the big winners were all connected, they
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: were family, friends, neighbors, and she suspected something shady. That
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: tip changes it all. The FBI launched what they called
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Operation Final Answer, and soon discovered every major winner traced
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: back to one man, Philbin Jerry Jacobson. Why does Jerry
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Jacobson remind me of what is it? Jake and Heimer Schmidt?
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: What was that?
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: Sa Jingleheimerschmid.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: There you go. Agents went undercover, wire tapped phones, and
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: even filmed fank McDonald's commercials to catch suspects the way
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: m HM FBI agents posing as ad reps handing out
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: million dollar checks while secretly recording confessions. In two thousand
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: and one, right before nine to eleven, the FBI arrested
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Jacobson in dozens of others. Over fifty people were charged
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: and nearly all pled guilty. And the reason why I
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: threw in that it was right before nine to eleven
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: because that's why very few people have actually heard of this.
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: Because it got overlooked.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Jacobson ultimately got thirty seven months in prison and was
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: ordered to repay twelve and a half million dollars. McDonald's
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: immediately cut ties with Simon Marketing, who tried to sue
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: them but lost For more than a decade. The big
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: prizes had been fake and McDonald's monopoly vanished from the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: US for years.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Simon Marketing should have spilled some coffee on their lap,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: then they might have won the suit.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: So Jerry Jacobson, he was charged with mail fraud in
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: conspiracy to commit mail fraud?
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: What about female fraud?
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Just mail? He was sentenced to thirty seven months in
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: federal prison, but he served just over, just a little
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: over three. He was ordered to repay twelve and a
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: half million dollars. He also served probation after release and
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: was permanently barred from working in any promotional or marketing
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: role ever again. So it's sad though that like the
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: people who were supposed to ensure that the game was legit, actually.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Were the ones that ensured that it wasn't legit.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, then they rigged the whole thing.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: But I want my money back McDonald's.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: For those of us who grew up in the eighties
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: and nineties, and the nostalgia's still real, the excitement, the commercials,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: the stickers, it's burned into our memories even if we
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: never won more than a free apple pie?
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Do they still do Monopoly at McDonald's.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: So that leads me to the inspiration about why I
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: decided to do this episode. McDonald's is bringing Monopoly back
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: with digital tracking through their app and stricter controls, so
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: you never know, maybe this time you'll finally get boardwalk.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Starting October six.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: That's this week. That was two days ago. Yep, we're
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: not promoting McDonald's or anything, folks, But if you do
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: go and you get a boardwalk, I think you need
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: to share it least anywhere from three to five percent.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: So prizes this time around include American Airlines miles, a
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars Monopoly themed vacation, a ten thousand dollars
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Lows shopping spree, a twenty twenty six Jeep Grand Cherokee,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: and that big one million dollar cash prize.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: That's the only thing I'm interested in. I don't need
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars in Low's gift cars.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: That's not getting you very far at Low's.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, well, I mean I guess it could
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: get you something, but I'm not a handy man, as
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: they say.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know they still made Jeep Grand Cherokees.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't want one of those either. I
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: just want the Mill all right, Can I get the
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: Mill car?
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: I need a car.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: You don't need a car. I just spent a fortune
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: on your car. You're going to drive it for the
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: next ten years. It's old, yes, like us.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: That was a good story. I rather enjoyed it. I
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: wasn't sure where you were going. I thought you were
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: going to say that maybe the hamburglar stole some of
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: the the stuff since least old cheeseburgers and hamburgers and
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: all kinds of stuff. But I didn't realize that a
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: triple J there rip people off, you know it. Never
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: trust triple J.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: No, So I would love to hear if if people
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: have the fun memories of McDonald's like I have.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sure, like, yeah, they do. You know what
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: I want. I want to know if people think what
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: I think, and that is McDonald should go back to
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: those ugly orange and brown uniforms with that well hat,
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: with that triangular paper hat. I think that they should
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: go back to those and then they should go back
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: to singing in the commercials You deserve a break today
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: and all that fun stuff. We need to nope it
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: on back.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Let's nope it on back, y'all.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: To the McDonald's ugly nineteen eighties podres uniforms.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: So listen, I'm going to make a promise to you
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: and everyone listening. If anybody wants to get together and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: we'll play this game as a group, I won't hold
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: out on you this time.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: Nope, nope, I'm matured a lot. She won't lie to
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: you about not having that conversation at all or about
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: not having Pennsylvania Avenue like I was like, who who what? Yeah?
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about? I never said that.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: H That's good stuff.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: So we'd love to hear from you.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: You can find us on social media. We're on x, Facebook,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: and Instagram at.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: Children of Underscore Eighties. You can also reach us by
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: email at Children of the nineteen Eighties at gmail dot com.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you. We would also
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: appreciate if you would subscribe to our podcast, and that
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: way you'll never miss an episode.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: Click that subscribe button, follow button, whatever it is on
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: your preferred app. Click it, click it, click.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: It, click it and ticket ticket and click it.
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: No no tickets, just click it. Okay, all right, Well,
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: until next time, I'm Jim.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: And I'm Lindsay and we are Children of the Eighties.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: See you next Wensday.