Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Clues for the World For $1 Campaign

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week you are well aware of the World for $1 campaign being hosted by LastMinuteTravel.com. For those of you sheltered folks I'll explain the promotion. Basically the World for $1 campaign allows you to book a trip ANYWHERE in the world with pretty much any hotel (including 5 star hotels) for just $1 /night. The catch (yes there is always a catch). Is that you have 15 minutes to do this and they do not tell you when these 15 minutes take place. From what I've gathered, people have been literally spending 10 hours a day on the website just so they be there when the 15 minute timer pops up.

For those of you who still don't get it..I'll walk you through the process of somebody who gets to book a trip for $1..

A person, let's call him "Joe", randomly stumbles upon LastMinuteTravel.com. After a few minutes a timer pops up that says 15:00 and continues to wind down by the second. Joe then has 15 minutes..and only 15 minutes.....to select a location, hotel, and then checkout. If he does this then he'll have a hotel of his choice for $1/night and Joe will be a very very happy guy.

Now onto the purpose of this post..the clues. When I say clues it could only mean one thing..that 15 minute time slot in which this campaign is taking place. How can you find clues? Well for those of you who are familiar with the Kevin & Janice World for $1 Adventure series, and have read the little video blurbs, the video is supposed to offer clues in relation to when this is taking place. Judging by the fact that each individual episode is averaging around 150,000 views and the one I just hyperlinked has about 60,000 views a lot of you have probably already seen this. From who I have talked to, nobody can narrow down a time period. I think though that I have figured it out to a certain extent. I can't give you an exact time, but I can save you a biiiiiiig chunk of time out of your day by giving you these clues.

Clue 1:


It's a little hard to see, but the clock says 6:02AM. This is the time when you see the dog run to the computer and book the trip. Kevin falls asleep at 11:52PM and you see the clock turn to 6:02AM and his dog runs to the computer and books the trip for him and Janice. This should be it right? The booked it at this time so it's running at 6:02..the end. Well, not exactly. There is no way that Kevin & Janice are at a packed Internet cafe at 6:00AM. Who also would wake up at 6:00AM for a freakin' anniversary striptease...I don't think that even Kevin & Janice would, but this clue is a start.

Clue 2/3:

These kind of go together a bit so I'm combining them..The Internet cafe. Now if you look at the whole episode (day 3) you can see that it is clearly daylight. May not sound like a big clue, but it is really the only time (besides the Monk episode) that is blatantly during the day. You might say "hey what about the striptease"? Well, you would THINK that a striptease is occurring at night, but whose to say that it wasn't in the morning. Speaking of the striptease, here comes clue #3, the couple makes it clear that they haven't exchanged anniversary gifts yet. Now if it was late at night, which is when you would THINK the striptease is taking place, the would have exchanged gifts already, but the fact that they haven't indicated that there is still a good portion of the day left.

Clue 4:



Judging by the fact that the words "Watch for the clues" are scattered throughout this episode indicates that you shouldn't completely ignore the Monk episode (although Kevin & Janice are nowhere to be found and the timer doesn't pop up). Take note in the beginning of the fact that a member of the convent is ringing a bell. This bell is an alarm waking up the other members signifying that it is early in the morning. He also rings the bell 9 times. 9am anyone???



Based on these 4 (or 3.5) clues what can be determined???

That the promotion is taking place in the morning...probably closer to the 6:00-9:00AM side. It also might vary on a daily basis for all I know, but I think you can determine from the clues I provided that if you want to spend all day on the website you'll be wasting your time. Stick with a 6:00AM-11:00AM slot to play it safe.


Now here comes the part where ask that we all work together on this. Has anybody else picked up additional clues?? Do you think that I'm completely wrong. Help :).


For those of you who still haven't viewed the video you can watch it here: http://www.lastminutetravel.com/Movies.aspx?mid=8&utm_source=blg&utm_medium=pv&utm_campaign=w4ad

They released the "Uncensored version" as well here:
http://www.lastminutetravel.com/Movies.aspx?mid=9&utm_source=blg&utm_medium=pv&utm_campaign=w4ad

3 comments:

Gil Lavie said...

dude, thanks. am going to try your sherlock skills out. you better be right :)

Unknown said...

At this point I'm getting desperate so I'll test your theory out tomorrow morning. However, I'm hearing some rumors about the 15 minutes being broken up into 2 different 7.5 minute slots or 3 different 5 minute slots at different times throughout the day. What's up with that??

ryu184 said...

Check out the clue on the hotel home page! There's some writing on the boat. OK I'll give it to you... The boat says 1/27AMEST so you get 1:27am EST! Or 10:27pm PST so try then. I know I am!