< Previous page

Who over the age of -- say -- 25 could forget the lyrics to the McDonald's Big Mac song?

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun!

OK, to be honest, I did... I had to look them up.

But if the Big Mac song is something you can recite by heart, you could participate in the jingle contest that McDonald's is running to celebrate the Big Mac's 40th anniversary. The company is inviting people to submit their own remixes of the famous song at MySpace.com/BigMacChant. (It's fun to go to the site and listen to the entries, too.) The winning submission will be featured in a TV ad that will air at the end of July. McDonald's judges will pick the finalists, but the winner will be chosen by an online vote.

Quaker Oats hoax

Apparently, there is a scam where unsuspecting consumers receive a mailing that looks like it is from Quaker Oats Co. They are promised thousands of dollars in exchange for some personal information. Of course, any mailing that promises you thousands of dollars should be deemed highly suspicious. But Quaker has gone as far as posting a consumer alert about this scam on its Web site. Quaker is asking you to forward such items to its consumer affairs department at Consumer Affairs, P.O. Box 049003, Chicago, IL 60604-9003.

Hints of a grand IKEA

The grand-opening celebration for a new IKEA in Brooklyn was a giveaway bonanza. The first 35 adults through the doors received free couches. The next 100 got Poang armchairs. There were random prize envelopes given, with gift cards ranging from $10 to $250, or vouchers for free food for the first 2,500 adults to visit the store. There were more giveaways, but you get the idea.

IKEA is opening its first North Carolina store in Charlotte next year. No word on whether that grand opening will be anything like this. But we can hope...

See video-game ratings

Andy Ellen, general counsel for the N.C. Retail Merchants Association, wants to spread the word about the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's free widget, which parents can download and install on their computers (esrb.org/about/widget/widget-consumer.jsp). The widget is available in English, Spanish and French, and it provides information about a game's rating category, content descriptions, publisher and platform. That way, parents have an easy way of investigating the games their children want to buy.

< Previous page

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.