Press Release | Discover® Card to Kick Off Times Square Celebration by Creating One of The First Millionaires of Year 2000 |
Riverwoods,
Illinois, December 28, 1999…Discover Financial
Services, a business unit of Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter & Co. (NYSE:MWD), today announced the
details of the final events leading up to the
culmination of one of the largest sweepstakes
ever in the history of Discover® Card—the
Cashback Bonus® Countdown Sweepstakes.
Discover
Card, the Worldwide Presenting Sponsor of Times
Square 2000TM, will give away $1 million
to one lucky winner in New York City's Times Square
on New Year's Eve at 9:30 a.m. EST, creating one
of the first millionaires of the year 2000.
Five
finalists have been selected from a pool of 2,000
qualifiers in the Cashback Bonus Countdown Sweepstakes.
Each finalist and a guest will receive a trip
to Times Square for New Year's Eve to be present
for the winner announcement. When they arrive
on December 29, the five finalists will be treated
to a whirlwind tour of local hot spots and city
landmarks and wined and dined at a congratulatory
dinner.
To kick off the New Year's Eve
celebration in New York, Discover Card will reveal
the name of the grand prize winner on the Discover
Card sign atop One Times Square in front of over
a million New Year's revelers. The five finalists
and their guests will convene at the Media Village
in Duffy Square (facing One Times Square on Broadway/7th
Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets). Discover
Card will announce the name of the new millionaire
while the winner's reaction is displayed on Discover
Card's Times Square sign simultaneously. The
remaining four finalists will each win $25,000.
Anyone
was eligible for a chance to win in the Cashback
Bonus Countdown Sweepstakes. Discover Cardmembers
were entered in the sweepstakes with every purchase
made through December 10, 1999. Other forms of
entry included cash advances, balance transfers,
new Discover Card applications and mail-ins.
Discover
Card began announcing 2,000 qualifiers on Saturday,
October 9, 1999 at 5 p.m. EST—one for each hour
remaining in 1999. These 2,000 qualifiers each
won a special $100 Cashback Bonus award and were
announced on the Discover Card sign in Times Square
as well as on www.discovercard.com.
"We're
delighted to add even more excitement to the Times
Square 2000 New Year's celebration by announcing
the newest millionaire of the New Year,"
said Roger Hochschild, executive vice president,
Business Development, Discover Financial Services,
Inc. "Five lucky Discover Cardmembers are
ringing in the New Year with a monumental bang
thanks to the rewards from the Cashback Bonus
Countdown, and thousands of others are already
enjoying their Cashback Bonus award from Discover
Card this year."
Discover Card
Times Square Sign
Discover Card's 55'x55'
electronic billboard is directly below the spot
where the famous New Year's Eve ball descends.
The sign is seen by 1.5 million people every
day and 30 million tourists a year.
Discover
Card Took Times Square Cross-Country
New
York isn't the only place where people can experience
Times Square 2000. Discover Card sent a 20'x 20'
New York cityscape—complete with the Brooklyn
Bridge, the Chrysler Building and, of course,
Times Square—to large malls throughout the country
this fall.
Visitors to the traveling exhibit
had the unique opportunity to have their photo
taken and then displayed on the Discover Card
Times Square sign. Visitors whose faces appeared
on the sign also were able to view how they looked
by logging onto www.discovercard.com.
The
tour traveled to eleven cities—Chicago, Detroit,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Minneapolis,
Phoenix, Colorado Springs, CO, Charlotte, NC,
Charleston, SC, and Houston.
Discover Financial
Services, a business unit of Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter & Co., operates the Discover Card brands
with more than 50 million Cardmembers and the
Discover Business Services network. Discover
Business Services is the largest independent credit
card network in the United States with more than
3.6 million merchant and cash access locations.
CONTACT:
Catherine
R. Edwards
Discover Financial Services, Inc.
P:
224/405-2008
catherineredwards@discoverfinancial.com
Claire
Burke
Hunter & Associates
P: 212/679-6600
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