Tuesday, 26 April 2011 21:02
Chick Chases Down Case of Hidden Booze Faster Than Seven Dudes
Written by Dan Dunn
Recently, four Americans and four Canadians ran, swam and go-karted around the South Pacific islands of Tonga in search of a missing case of Canadian Club whisky hidden there in 1991. After four days of racing against each other and the clock in various Amazing Race –styled challenges, it boiled down to Kristina Beall, a tri-athlete grad student (and the only woman competitor), who made it to the finish line at the lake’s edge first and came home with $100,000. These lucky and brave souls were part of Canadian Club’s revival of “Hide A Case,” the famous and longest running marketing campaign in the spirits industry. Check out photos of them biking, yachting and hanging off buildings at www.hideacase.com.
This all started back in 1967 when the company hid cases of whisky in remote locations around the globe, like Mt. Kilimanjaro, Loch Ness and the Great Barrier Reef, and left clues for adventure (and booze) seekers in print advertisements. Every decade or so, CC would hide a few more cases and folks would set off for foreign lands to hunt for the booty – no cash prize, just a case of the sweet spirit. Of the 25 cases hidden, nine were still waiting to be discovered and last May, CC set its eye on Tonga!
This all started back in 1967 when the company hid cases of whisky in remote locations around the globe, like Mt. Kilimanjaro, Loch Ness and the Great Barrier Reef, and left clues for adventure (and booze) seekers in print advertisements. Every decade or so, CC would hide a few more cases and folks would set off for foreign lands to hunt for the booty – no cash prize, just a case of the sweet spirit. Of the 25 cases hidden, nine were still waiting to be discovered and last May, CC set its eye on Tonga!
CC brought Hide a Case back with a $100,000 cash prize and rather than promoting through old school magazine ads, everything was brought online! Six weeks of online games and puzzles tested contestants mental capabilities and still provided the challenge of deciphering clues to the cases location. More than 23,000 people signed up, but only a couple hundred had acquired enough points to move on to the semi-finals, where they had to create and upload videos explaining why they should go on the hunt. For several weeks, the public voted and in October, a panel of judges made the final decision on the eight finalists - US team members : Alex Chepeska (St. Clair Shores, MI), John Daly (Hazlet, NJ), Robert Gale (Hamden, CT) and Kristina Beall (Alexandria, VA), and the Canadian team: Jordan Andrew (London, Ontario), Alexander Short (Toronto, Ontario), Doug Vanderby (Toronto, Ontario) and Rob Aitken (London, Ontario).
On April 7, the hunt started when the finalists joined Hide A Case host and TV personality Kevin Brauch (The Thirsty Traveler) at the Canadian Club Heritage Centre for a kickoff event before shipping off to Tonga, via Auckland, NZ. A week later, the adventurers were sent home with Kava fueled memories, some cash…but no whisky. While Kristina and semi-finalist Rob Gale spent over 30 minutes diving for the case in the murky, hot waters of a volcanic lake, they turned up empty handed. So, if you are ever in Tonga and feel like looking for some free booze, dive right in. Otherwise, if you really want an adventure, you can always check out the old magazine ads and figure out the clues to one of the still missing cases (like the one pictured here). All the old ads are on the Hide A Case site along with testimonials from the contestants. I’ll just sit back with a glass of CC and check out the videos and photos from their travels instead.
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