Christmas is the season to be jolly and generous and just plain nicer, not to get stuck on technicalities and “rob” people of a prize they won. Just ask Audi USA, and they’d tell you the same thing.
One of this week’s viral videos caught the eye of the marketing people at Audi USA: contestant Charlene Rubush’s final round on the popular game show Wheel of Fortune. The reason Audi took notice of it is because the big prize was a brand new Audi Q3, which Rubush could have won if she’d gotten the answer to the puzzle right.
However, as you can see in the video below, Rubush did get the answer right, just not in the correct manner. The fact that she paused before getting the final right word (which was “word,” ironically) meant she fell foul of the show’s rules. One of them clearly states that a contestant’s sentence must be continuous so, when Rubush paused for five seconds before uttering the final word, it meant she was saying a different sentence.
As host Pat Sajak explained to Rubush, because the pause between words had been too long, she couldn’t qualify for the big prize. The bad news was that she’d go home without the Q3, but the good news was that she still got $16,500 in cash.
Still, viewers weren’t happy. As the video went viral, they asked for the producers to reconsider and give Rubush her car, threatening to boycott the show if they didn’t. While the producers are yet to respond to this, Audi is stepping up to right the wrong. Using social media, the carmaker was able to track down Rubush, and she will be taking delivery of her new Q3 soon.
“In the spirit of the holidays, we are thrilled to gift Charlene with an all-new Audi Q3,” Tara Rush, Audi’s chief marketing officer, says in a statement to Roadshow. “It is the season of giving after all and, technicality or not, we are always eager to share a bit of Audi magic and cheer!”
Sure, this is a brilliant marketing opportunity for Audi, and they’re using it to the max. But it’s also a nice gesture and very much in keeping with the season.
As it turns out, Santa doesn’t always arrive by sleigh. Sometimes, he drives an Audi Q3.
There's no community like the Audi community. With your help, we tracked down Charlene!
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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