from T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s at:
http://www.TOURBUS.com:
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The Urban Legend That Melts in Your Email, Not in Your Hands ...
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As continuing proof that the brightness knob on my computer doesn't
work, I offer the following gem that has been cluttering up email
inboxes over the past couple of weeks:
Hi. My name is Jeffrey Newieb. I am a marketing analyst for
M&Ms chocolate candies based in Hershey, Pennsylvania. As the
year 2000 approaches, we want to be the candy of the millennium
... We are asking you to pass on this e-mail to 5 friends ...
Everytime [this message] reaches 2000 people, you will receive a
free case (100 individual 55 gram packs)of delicious M & M
candies.
It is a cute story, but there's just one problem: M&Ms come from the
M&M/Mars company in Hackettstown, New Jersey, not from the Hershey
Foods Corporation in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In fact, M&M/Mars and
Hershey are bitter rivals. You'd think that the "marketing analyst
for M&Ms" would know that.
Obviously, this is yet another "forward an email message to all of
your friends and something great will happen" story. Unfortunately,
if you forward the "free M&Ms" email to all of your friends, you won't
receive any candy. You'll only make yourself look silly to your
friends and peers. And I guess that is the whole point of this and
other Internet hoaxes.
For more information about both the free M&M hoax and all of its
ancestors (remember the "free trip to Disney" hoax?), take a look at
Barbara Mikkelson's wonderful "Thousand Dollar Bill" article at
<A HREF="http://www.snopes.com/spoons/faxlore/billgate.htm">
http://www.snopes.com/spoons/faxlore/billgate.htm </A>.
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