**History of MagiCan Campaign**:
– Coca-Cola introduced the Magic Summer 90 campaign in March 1990.
– Journalists received MagiCans containing money as part of the campaign announcement.
– The campaign shifted to giving away tickets to the New Kids on The Blocks Magic Summer Tour.
– MagiCups, paper cups with peel-off prizes, were used for fountain drinks.
– The campaign continued without the MagiCans after technical issues arose.
**Technical Issues and Early Termination**:
– Some MagiCans had malfunctioning pop-up mechanisms or faulty seals.
– Chlorinated water mixture leaked into some cans, leading to consumer complaints.
– Coca-Cola halted distribution and tested MagiCans for defects.
– The campaign was ended after three weeks due to negative publicity.
– Rival Pepsi faced similar negative publicity with its Cool Cans promotion.
**Urban Legend Surrounding MagiCan**:
– An urban legend circulated in the 1990s and 2000s about a child dying from drinking MagiCan liquid.
– Snopes.com debunked the urban legend, tracing it back to media coverage of a different incident.
**Related References and Connections**:
– Bernice Kanner’s article in New York from June 15, 1992.
– Associated Press coverage by Marc Rice on the end of the MagiCan promotion.
– Anthony Ramirez’s report in The New York Times on problems with the promotion.
– Newsweek’s article on the challenges faced by the MagiCan promotion.
– Snopes.com’s information on the MagiCan urban legend and debunking it.
– See also: Cola wars, My Coke Rewards, OK Soda’s Prize Can promotion.
**Overview, Purpose, Components, Formatting, and Best Practices**:
– Overview: Short description providing key points and highlights of a topic.
– Purpose: Helps users decide if they want to learn more, saves time, influences engagement, aids in information retrieval.
– Components: Typically includes main points, keywords for search optimization, accurate and up-to-date information.
– Formatting: Presented at the beginning of an article, in bold or italics, in a neutral tone, easy to read and understand.
– Best Practices: Tailor to target audience, use clear language, avoid jargon, update as needed, test different versions for effectiveness.
MagiCans were special, mechanical cans used by The Coca-Cola Company in the United States of America as a part of their $100-million "Magic Summer '90" promotion. The MagiCan promotion began on May 7, 1990, and ended on May 31.
In this promotion, some Coca-Cola cans had cash prizes or gift certificates inside instead of Coca-Cola. The prizes were spring-loaded to pop out of the opening once the can was opened. The prize would either be money, from $1 to $500, or coupons redeemable for trips or merchandise. The total giveaway of cash and prize coupons was $4 million. The original plan was to randomly distribute about 750,000 MagiCans among the 200 million cans of Coca-Cola Classic in circulation at any one time. To make the cans feel and weigh normal, and prevent people from easily finding the prize cans, a sealed area within the cans was filled with a mixture of chlorinated water and a foul-smelling substance to discourage drinking. Though initially a great success—that led to a rise in sales—technical difficulties led to the promotion's early termination.