Wow… Not even in my wildest childhood dreams did I ever think an actual contest like this would exist. Remember how in the movie, Willy Wonka had placed five golden tickets inside the wrappers of candy bars? Then, those kids took a tour and one winner was to take over Wonka’s beloved chocolate factory. Yep. That’s happening… sort of.
One of the founders of Jelly Belly is actually holding the exact same type of contest, but with a few twists, and the inclusion of social media. The good news is, there are more than just five tickets in this game. Unfortunately, it’s more than the cost of a candy bar to play, and you won’t be looking inside wrappers.
The game is more of a scavenger hunt, and it will cost $49.98 to receive the riddle to play. They’ll add you to a private group, and send you the date and time your treasure hunt starts, plus the “riddle” for your group. You will be looking for a Gold Ticket dog-tag style necklace with a code on it to verify your find. Winners will receive $5,000. You also won’t have to worry about having to travel too far, there are games being held in each state! The 50 gold ticket necklace winners from each state will be entered in a drawing to win the candy factory.
The funny part of this story is what candy factory you win. You would think it would be a Jelly Belly factory right? Not exactly. Turns out, even though the man holding the contest, David Klein, FOUNDED their company, he sold his stake 40 years ago and owns a different candy company, called Spectrum Confections.
And you can tell Jelly Belly is not happy about the confusion with the contest by how they phrased their message, which read, “Due to confusion in the marketplace, Jelly Belly Candy Company would like to take this opportunity to clear up the misconception that it is involved with a contest that purportedly offers a candy factory as its grand prize.”
So if you win this contest, you won’t be taking over Jelly Belly’s empire, but you’ll still be winning an actual candy factory. I don’t really think that matters… whoever wins it is still gonna be super happy I’m sure. I mean, come on… It’s a CANDY FACTORY! I’d be stoked anyway, even if it was a factory that produced candy I didn’t like.
Oh and in case you’ve forgotten how epic the original Willy Wonka movie was, let me remind you with this video <3
