50p
Roll Up the Rim
In our lives we have all experienced excitement. Bad excitement is knowing you’ve done something wrong or stupid and will have to own up to it. Good excitement is winning rugby provincials, suffering extreme stage fright and still pulling off a great performance, or even scoring an A on one of Mr. Crossley’s devastatingly difficult calculus tests. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to the joyful excitement of Rolling Up the Rim at Tim Horton’s to find you’re a winner!
Every true Canadian is aware of the severe national importance of ‘Roll Up the Rim’. You could even say that one is not yet completely Canadian until you have taken part.
The ‘Roll Up the Rim’ campaign was first launched in 1986 and has grown to become a highly anticipated annual event for Tim Horton’s customers. The contest is so popular that Paul Kind has invented the Rimroller (as seen on the popular television show, Dragons’ Den) a device for rolling up the rim mechanically. Customers determine if they have won prizes by unrolling the rim on their paper cups when they have finished their hot beverage, revealing their luck or lack of it, underneath. The campaign occurs in March and over 31 million prizes are distributed each year, including vehicles, televisions, and camping sets - but most of us just win a coffee or donut. The fact that we are completely satisfied with such a small prize as a donut or another cup of coffee speaks to the intense feeling of excitement we all feel at winning anything - anything at all. It also nationalizes us. In a short twenty-six years Tim’s has achieved iconic status in Canada.
Our own Tim Horton’s in Mill Bay annually celebrates this most joyous of occasions. During fine art or sports afternoons students can be seen making the Tim Horton Pilgrimage – that straight-as-an-arrow uphill climb to carb and java splendor, anticipating what they might do if they actually did win.
They say the odds of winning are one-in-six, but I, myself, am proof that this is a bit of a stretch. I am a ‘Roll Up the Rim’ veteran. This year alone I have made the trek to test my luck ten times, yet the Doughnut Gods have cursed me with an unfortunate losing streak and I have been denied the donut trophy each and every time. Another and more note-worthy example of the one-in-six fallacy is the story of Tyler C, who has marched up the hill to Tim Horton’s twenty-eight times only to be successful once.
But I, along with millions of other Canadians, will continue to return, time and again, filled with good and even joyful excitement and hopeful anticipation, wishing that just this once the large caramel latte I cradle in my hands will be my lucky cup and win me a prize.
We are children of the Tim Horton Generation. Some of us are not so much addicted to java as we are to the excitement of the chase and the addiction of winning. Personally, I will not give up the fight. I will persevere, one cup at a time, in exercising my wallet until I reach the nirvana of victory – or drown in coffee trying to. I will not rest until that camping set is mine!
Emily R
Every true Canadian is aware of the severe national importance of ‘Roll Up the Rim’. You could even say that one is not yet completely Canadian until you have taken part.
The ‘Roll Up the Rim’ campaign was first launched in 1986 and has grown to become a highly anticipated annual event for Tim Horton’s customers. The contest is so popular that Paul Kind has invented the Rimroller (as seen on the popular television show, Dragons’ Den) a device for rolling up the rim mechanically. Customers determine if they have won prizes by unrolling the rim on their paper cups when they have finished their hot beverage, revealing their luck or lack of it, underneath. The campaign occurs in March and over 31 million prizes are distributed each year, including vehicles, televisions, and camping sets - but most of us just win a coffee or donut. The fact that we are completely satisfied with such a small prize as a donut or another cup of coffee speaks to the intense feeling of excitement we all feel at winning anything - anything at all. It also nationalizes us. In a short twenty-six years Tim’s has achieved iconic status in Canada.
Our own Tim Horton’s in Mill Bay annually celebrates this most joyous of occasions. During fine art or sports afternoons students can be seen making the Tim Horton Pilgrimage – that straight-as-an-arrow uphill climb to carb and java splendor, anticipating what they might do if they actually did win.
They say the odds of winning are one-in-six, but I, myself, am proof that this is a bit of a stretch. I am a ‘Roll Up the Rim’ veteran. This year alone I have made the trek to test my luck ten times, yet the Doughnut Gods have cursed me with an unfortunate losing streak and I have been denied the donut trophy each and every time. Another and more note-worthy example of the one-in-six fallacy is the story of Tyler C, who has marched up the hill to Tim Horton’s twenty-eight times only to be successful once.
But I, along with millions of other Canadians, will continue to return, time and again, filled with good and even joyful excitement and hopeful anticipation, wishing that just this once the large caramel latte I cradle in my hands will be my lucky cup and win me a prize.
We are children of the Tim Horton Generation. Some of us are not so much addicted to java as we are to the excitement of the chase and the addiction of winning. Personally, I will not give up the fight. I will persevere, one cup at a time, in exercising my wallet until I reach the nirvana of victory – or drown in coffee trying to. I will not rest until that camping set is mine!
Emily R
75p
