[url]http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=134497556&zsection_id=268448413&slug=toon21&date=20020721[/url]
[b]Looney: Cartoon game omits kids[/b]

[i]By Adam Liptak
The New York Times[/i]

Douglas Gray, an 11-year-old from Wasilla, Alaska, could not believe his luck last summer when he received an e-mail from a Warner Bros. executive.

"Congratulations!" it said. "You have been chosen as the grand-prize winner of the Toon Marooned Adventure Sweepstakes." The prize was a Chevrolet Venture van worth $31,000.

Douglas wrote back to the executive, Andrew Feinstein.

"Wow!" he wrote. "Did I really win?"

"Yes!" Feinstein replied. "You really won."

Warner Bros. now says Douglas did not really win.

He entered the contest on the Looney Toons Web site. It required him to watch an episode of "Toon Marooned" and answer a question.

When Warner Bros. learned that a child had won, Michael Lewis, deputy general counsel of the its online subsidiary, told Douglas and his mother that only people 18 or older with drivers licenses were eligible to enter.

"It felt really bad," Douglas said. "I think that if it's a Looney Tunes Web site, then kids should be allowed to enter."

One of Douglas' lawyers, Robert Esensten of Beverly Hills, Calif., said the target audience and the contest's eligibility requirements had no overlap.

"How many people over 18 watch cartoons on a Saturday morning?" Esensten asked. "I don't know why they would want to have a contest like this that no one could win."

Douglas' mother, Kari Gray, filed a lawsuit on his behalf in California state court last month. The suit cites another provision of the rules: "If the prize is won by a minor, it will be awarded in the minor's name to his/her parent or legal guardian."

Michael Barkow, an expert in advertising law in New York, said the company's legal position was defensible. The seemingly conflicting rules can be reconciled, he said, because in several states 18-year-olds are considered minors.

But as a business matter, Barkow said: "The whole thing is ill-conceived. There is a disconnect in the marketing."

Douglas Graham, another of the Grays' lawyers, said, "You know what's so shabby is that it would have cost them nothing just to give him the car."

Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman for Warner Brothers, disagreed.

"Based on the stated rules of this sweepstakes and the legal imperative that we must comply with the laws of all 50 states in conducting our sweepstakes to ensure that each eligible entrant is treated fairly, there is no legal basis for this complaint," she said.

Rules is Rules, I hardly see how he was "screwd"

Oh and BTW im over 18 and sometimes watch cartoons. You got a problem with that?

The suit cites another provision of the rules: "If the prize is won by a minor, it will be awarded in the minor's name to his/her parent or legal guardian."

Really, you still watch cartoons!!

I guess you're just as wierd as I am!!

I'm 43 and still watch cartoons, along with Disney movies, and old 3 stooges reruns.

If anyone has a problem with it then the can go F$#k themselves!!!

YUK YUK YUK......

[bounce]           [frag]

You must have missed that part.  It helps if you read the whole thing. [;D]

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

My life is a cartoon... and it's my favorite show!