HERSHEY'S BLISS® "SHARE THE BLISS™" CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. THE HERSHEY'S BLISS® SHARE THE BLISS™ CONTEST ("CONTEST") IS ONLY OPEN TO LEGAL U.S. RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES AND DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WHO ARE 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER AT TIME OF ENTRY. VOID IN PUERTO RICO AND WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. CONTEST THEME: HERSHEY®'S invites consumers to submit an essay on "Why you want to experience 'bliss' through sharing the 16 ct. HERSHEY'S BLISS® diamond necklace". Five (5) winners will be selected and each will be given the opportunity to wear a 16 ct. diamond necklace for a 14-day period. Winners are then invited to blog their Contest experience on www.hersheysbliss.com. At the end of the Contest, the last winner wearing the necklace will return the necklace to The Hershey Company ("Sponsor"). Each winner will be allowed to keep the necklace for no longer than their assigned 14-day period.
2. CONTEST TIMING: The Contest begins at 12:00:00 a.m. (midnight) Eastern Time (ET) on 8/25/09 and ends at 11:59:59 p.m. ET on 12/4/09 (the "Overall Contest Entry Period"). The Overall Contest Entry Period is divided into five (5) individual entry periods ("Individual Contest Entry Periods"). All Individual Contest Entry Periods begin at 12:00:00 a.m. ET on the dates specified; and end at 11:59:59 p.m. ET on the dates specified.
| Entry Period |
Individual Contest Entry Period Begins - Ends |
Winner Notified on or about |
Winner Opportunity - Winner wears necklace Beginning - Ending |
| 1 |
08/25/09 - 09/11/09 |
09/15/09 |
09/18/09 - 10/01/09 |
| 2 |
9/12/09 - 10/02/09 |
10/06/09 |
10/09/09 - 10/22/09 |
| 3 |
10/3/09 - 10/23/09 |
10/27/09 |
10/30/09 - 11/12/09 |
| 4 |
10/24/09 - 11/13/09 |
11/17/09 |
11/20//09 - 12/03/09 |
| 5 |
11/14/09 - 12/04/09 |
12/08/09 |
12/11/09 - 12/24/09 |
3. TO ENTER: You must submit an essay ("Essay") in accordance with the guidelines below, describing "Why you would like to experience 'bliss' through sharing the 16 ct. HERSHEY'S BLISS® diamond necklace". Your Essay must be in English and contain between 50 and 150 words. To submit your Essay, visit www.hersheysbliss.com ("Web Site"), during an Individual Contest Entry Period, and click on an icon, banner or text link to access the Contest registration page. Then provide your name, complete address, date of birth, daytime and evening phone numbers and email address, review and accept any terms and conditions of submitting your Essay, and then submit your Essay ("Entry"). All Entrants must have a valid email address. All Entries must be received and recorded within the Overall Contest Entry Period. The Web site administrator's computer is the official timekeeping device for this Contest. Limit one (1) online entry per name per e-mail address per day. No responsibility is assumed by Sponsor for lost, late, illegible, incomplete or misdirected Entries. Entries become the property of Sponsor and none will be returned. Automated entries are prohibited, and any use of automated devices will cause disqualification. Please see the privacy policy located at http://www.hersheys.com/privacy/ for details of Sponsor's policy regarding the use of personal information collected in connection with this Contest.
4. ELIGIBILITY: Contest open only to legal U.S. residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, its parent, subsidiaries, divisions, suppliers, retailers, printers, distributors and advertising, promotional and judging agencies, and promotional partners (and their respective IRS dependents, immediate family members [parents, children, siblings and spouse]) and individuals residing in their same household (whether or not related) (collectively, "Sponsor and Promotion Parties") are not eligible to participate or win.
5. ENTRY GUIDELINES: By submitting an Essay, entrant acknowledges that his/her Entry may be posted on Sponsor's Web site, in Sponsors discretion, and that Sponsor has no obligation to use or post any Entry you submit. Sponsor reserves the right to, and may or may not, monitor/screen and /or edit Entries prior to posting them to the Web site. By submitting an Essay, you grant Sponsor and its agents the full right and power to copy, publish, broadcast, display, distribute, use, edit, translate, alter, combine with other material, reuse and adapt any or all portions of the Entry in any way and for any purpose whatsoever, at any time, now or in perpetuity, in any media now known or hereafter devised throughout the world in any manner whatsoever and for any purpose without consideration to entrant. Entries that are not in accordance with the guidelines as stated herein or are not received during the Overall Contest Entry Period will be ineligible.
Essays cannot (a) be sexually explicit or suggestive; threatening profane; violent or derogatory of any ethnic, racial, gender, religious, professional or age group or sexual orientation; pornographic, contain nudity or any materially dangerous activity; (b) promote alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms/weapons (or the use of any of the foregoing); any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous, or any particular political or religious agenda or message; (c) be obscene or offensive, endorse any form of hate or hate group; (d) contain trademarks, logos or trade dress owned by others, or advertise or promote any brand or product of any kind other than the Sponsor's, without permission, or contain any personal identification, such as license plate numbers, personal names, e-mail addresses or street addresses; (e) contain copyrighted materials owned by others without permission; (f) contain materials embodying the names, likenesses, or other indicia identifying any person, living or dead, without permission; (g) contain advertising or commercial messages of any kind; (h) be critical of Sponsor or any other contestant (i.e., trash talking); (i) contain any recruiting information of any kind; and (j) cannot itself be in, violation of any law.
By submitting an Essay you warrant and represent that it: (a) is your original work, (b) has not been previously published, (c) has not received previous awards, (d) does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity; (e) that you have obtained permission from each and every person or whose name or likeness is used in the Entry (including parental/legal guardian permission for a minor), if any; and (f) that publication of the Entry via various media including Web posting, will not infringe on the rights of any third party rights. Any such entrant will indemnify and hold harmless, Sponsor and Promotion Parties (as defined in Rule #4) from any claims to the contrary. Any entrant whose Essay includes likenesses of third parties or contains elements not owned by the entrant must be able to provide legal releases for such use including Sponsor’s use of such Entry, in a form satisfactory to Sponsor, upon request, prior to awarding Winner Opportunity (see Rule #7) or naming of entrant as a finalist or winner. Any Entry that, in the sole opinion of Sponsor, is deemed to be inappropriate for publication is ineligible.
6. CONTEST JUDGING: Five (5) First Prize Winners: Five (5) Essays will be selected as finalists ("Finalist Essays") for each of the Individual Contest Entry Periods. Finalist Essays will be judged by an independent judging agency ("Judges"), whose decisions are final and binding in all matters relating to this Contest. Finalists Essays will be judged on the following criteria ("Judging Criteria"): (a) 50% Relevance to essay topic and (b) 50% Creativity / Originality. Finalist Essays will be determined by the top five (5) highest cumulative scores for all Judging Criteria. In case of a tie, the tie will be broken by the highest cumulative score awarded for "Creativity / Originality". If tie continues, then tie(s) will be broken by the Essay with highest cumulative score in "Relevance to essay topic". If tie continues, the tied Entries will be judged by a second panel of judges using the stated Judging Criteria to determine the Finalist Essay. The winner for the first Individual Contest Entry Period will be determined by the Judges, from among the five (5) Finalist Essays, based on the Judging Criteria and tie-breaking methodology stated above. The winners for the subsequent Individual Contest Entry Periods will be determined by the previous Individual Contest Entry Period's winner, from among the five (5) Finalist Essays selected by the Judges for that particular Individual Contest Entry Period, based on the Judging Criteria. Essays not chosen as Finalist Essays in a particular Individual Contest Entry Period (Runners-Up) will roll over into subsequent Individual Contest Entry Periods. Fifty (50) Runner-Up Winners: The four (4) non-winning Finalist Essays from each Individual Contest Entry Period and the next thirty (30) highest scoring Essays from all Individual Contest Entry Periods determined by the Judges based on the Judging Criteria as set forth above will be selected as Runner-Up Winners. In case of a tie, the tie will be broken using the tie breaking process set forth above.
7. PRIZES: Five (5) First Prizes: Each First Prize winner ("Winner") will receive an opportunity to wear the designated HERSHEY'S BLISS® 16 ct. diamond Necklace ("Necklace") for the 14-day period as stated above in Section 2; one (1) paperback copy of The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis (ISBN:9780345500724) and; two (2) 9.6 ounce bags and two (2) 1.3 ounce bars of HERSHEY'S BLISS® Candy. Winners will also be given the opportunity to travel to New York to attend the Young Survival Coalition's In Living Pink event scheduled in 2010 ("Prize"). Acceptance of the travel portion of the Prize is optional and not required to accept the Prize as described above. In the event Winners wish to accept the travel portion of the Prize, trip includes: single-occupancy standard hotel accommodations for Winner for one (1) night and $200 spending money (payable to Winner in the form of a check). If Winner's residence is not located within 250 miles of New York City, New York, round-trip coach air transportation (from major airport near Winner's home within the U.S.) will be provided for the Winners, as well as ground transportation to and from the airport to the hotel, at the sole discretion of the Sponsor. Winners must comply with all security requirements. Winners must have all necessary identification and/or travel documents (e.g. a valid U.S. driver's license) required for travel within the United States. Winners must accept Prize as stated or the Prize may be forfeited and may be awarded to an alternate Winner. Selection of airport, airline, hotel, ground transportation and travel dates are at Sponsor’s sole discretion. Sponsor assumes no responsibility for cancelled, delayed, suspended or rescheduled events (including airline flights) beyond its control. All other expenses not specifically mentioned herein are solely the responsibility of Winner. All travel and accommodations are subject to availability, change and restrictions. Actual value of trip Prize depends on city, day, and time of departure. Sponsor reserves the right to change the dates listed in Section 2 for wearing the Necklace at Sponsor's sole discretion. At the end of each Winner's respective 14-day period, Winner must return the Necklace to the Sponsor, as directed by Sponsor, in Sponsor's sole discretion. The Necklace will then be forwarded by Sponsor to the Winner selected for the next Individual Contest Entry Period until all five (5) Winners have received the opportunity to wear the Necklace. No Winner will be allowed to keep the Necklace for longer than the assigned 14-day period. Winner is requested, but not required, to blog their experience(s) associated to winning the opportunity to wear the Necklace for the 14-day period at www.hersheysbliss.com. Winner is responsible for returning the Necklace to Sponsor in its original condition and is responsible for lost merchandise, any damages or alterations made to the Necklace by parties other than the Sponsor. Each Winner (excluding the Winner of the Winner Opportunity from 12/11/09-12/24/09) will also be provided with five (5) Finalists Essays from the next Individual Contest Entry Period to select one (1) of the Finalist Essays to be named the Winner for the next Individual Contest Entry Period (as stated above in Section 6). If Winner does not select one of the Finalist Essays from the next Individual Contest Entry Period in accordance with the Judging Criteria and tie-breaking methodology in Section 6, Judges will select the Winner using the Judging Criteria and tie-breaking methodology in Section 6. Winner must accept Winner Opportunity and all responsibilities as being named a Winner as stated herein or the opportunity may be forfeited in its entirety and offered to an alternate Winner, in Sponsor's sole discretion. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) of the Necklace: $32,000.00. ARV of each Prize award is $3,075.00 (if trip taken to NY); ARV of Prize without trip $575.00. Fifty (50) Runner Up Prizes: Each Runner Up will receive one (1) paperback copy of The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis (ISBN:9780345500724) and two (2) 9.6 ounce bags and two (2) 1.3 ounce bars of HERSHEY'S BLISS® Candy. ARV: $25.00 each. Limit one (1) Prize per name, e-mail address, mailing address and/or household. Total ARV of prizes awarded $16,625.00.
8. GENERAL TERMS: No substitution of prize is offered, no transfer of prize to a third party is permitted, and non-cash portions of the prize may not be redeemed for cash value (unless at the sole discretion of Sponsor). Void wherever prohibited or restricted by law. Winners will be solely responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes on prize. Winner will not receive an IRS Form 1099 for the retail value of the Necklace due to the Necklace being returned to Sponsor. Winner will be responsible only for taxes associated with the retail value of the prize award. All other expenses on the receipt and use of the prize not specifically mentioned herein are solely the responsibility of the Winner. Any portion of a prize not accepted by Winner will be forfeited. Each Winner's first initial, last name, hometown and state will be disclosed on Winner's List which will be distributed upon request and as required by law. No groups, clubs or organizations may reproduce or distribute any portion of these Official Rules to its members. All entrants, as a condition of entry, agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the judges.
9. WINNER NOTIFICATION: Potential Winners will be notified by mail, phone, or email at the address, phone number, or email address provided at the time of entry. If Winner notification is returned as undeliverable without a forwarding address or if Winner is found to be ineligible or otherwise not in compliance with these Official Rules, prize will result in forfeiture. Winners will be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility/Liability with (where lawful) a Publicity Release within three (3) days of attempted Winner notification as indicated by the date on the Affidavit. Failure to return any required documents within three (3) days may result in prize forfeiture. If Winner of any prize is an eligible minor in his/her state of residence, prize will be awarded to the Winner's parent or legal guardian who must sign and return all required documentation. Shipment of Necklace scheduled to arrive on the date(s) stated in Rule #2, only following completion of notification process. Prize will only be delivered to addresses within the United States.
10. CONDITIONS: All entrants, as a condition of entry into the Contest, agree to release Sponsor and Promotion Parties from and against any and all liability, claims or actions of any kind whatsoever for injuries, damages, or losses of any kind to persons including death or property which may be sustained directly or indirectly with the receipt, ownership, use or misuse of any prize awarded or Entry, or while preparing for, participating in or traveling to or from any prize-related activity or for any typographical or other error in these Official Rules, errors or omissions in the Entry submission or the announcement of offering of any prize. The Winner shall bear all risk of loss or damage to their prize after it has been delivered. In consideration for the right for your Entry to be reviewed in the Contest and the possibility of winning a prize as outlined herein, except for residents of Tennessee and where prohibited by law, Finalists/Winners grant permission for Sponsor (and agree to confirm such agreement in writing) and those acting pursuant to Sponsor's authority to use his/her name, photograph, biographical information, voice and/or likeness, and Entry (which may be altered, changed, modified, edited, used alone or with other works, as solely determined by Sponsor) for advertising, trade and promotional purposes without further compensation, in perpetuity, in all media now known or hereafter discovered world wide and on the Internet and/or World Wide Web without notice or review or approval.
Any waiver of any obligation hereunder by Sponsor does not constitute a general waiver of any obligation to entrants. By accepting a prize, Finalist/Winner agrees that his/her Entry will be deemed a Work Made For Hire under the Copyright laws of the United States, but if it cannot be so deemed, then the Finalist/Winner irrevocably assigns and transfers to Sponsor all of his/her right, title and interest in and to his/her Entry, including all but not limited to all copyright and trademark rights which he or she may have, in the United States and worldwide, therein, for consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged. Finalist/Winner hereby waives in favor of Sponsor, all rights of "Droit Moral" or "Moral Rights of Authors" or any similar rights or principles of law that Finalist/Winner may now or later have to his/her Entry. Sponsor reserves the right to alter, change or modify the winning Entry, in its sole discretion. Upon request of Sponsor, Finalist/Winner shall execute and deliver such additional instrument of assignment, as may be solely deemed by Sponsor, reasonably necessary to establish the ownership of record of the right, title and interest in and to the Entry and of the copyrights transferred and "Moral Rights of Authors" waived under these Official Rules. Should Sponsor fail to request the said assignment as stated, that shall not be deemed a waiver of Sponsor's rights and Sponsor may at a later time request the assignment.
11. LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY: Sponsor and Promotion Parties assume no responsibility for (a) lost, illegible, late, misdirected, or incomplete, entries or email; or for interrupted or unavailable satellite, network, server, Internet Service Provider (ISP), Web site, telephone or other connections, availability or accessibility, or miscommunications, or failed computer, satellite, telephone or cable transmissions, or lines, or technical failure or jumbled, garbled, corrupted, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions, or computer hardware or software or telephone malfunctions, failures, or technical errors or difficulties, or other errors of any kind whether human, mechanical, electronic or network or the incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry or other information or the failure to capture, or loss of, any such information, and (b) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by Web site users, or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this Contest; any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect or delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or tampering with or hacking of the Web site. Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry or judging process or operation of Contest or Web site, to be acting in violation of the terms of the Web site or to be acting in a non-sportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to threaten, abuse or harass any other person. Sponsor and Promotion Parties are not responsible for injury or damage to participant's or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading or copying materials from or use of Web site. If, for any reason, Contest, in the sole opinion of Sponsor, is not capable of running as planned by reason of infection by computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, hacking, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes which, in sole opinion of the Sponsor, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest, Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend Contest, and determine Winners from eligible Entries received prior to action taken, or as otherwise deemed fair and equitable by Sponsor. In case of dispute, authorized subscriber of e-mail account used to enter at actual time of entry will be deemed to be the participant, and must comply with these Official Rules. The authorized account subscriber is deemed to be natural person who is assigned an e-mail address by an ISP or other organization that is responsible for assigning e-mail addresses. It is solely the responsibility of the entrant to notify Sponsor in writing if the entrant changes his or her e-mail address during the Overall Contest Entry Period.
CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY A USER OR ENTRANT OR ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
12. DISPUTE RESOLUTION: Except where prohibited, by participating, you agree that all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of participant(s) and Sponsor, shall be governed by and construed exclusively in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law of any jurisdiction and that: (a) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action; (b) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with participating, but in no event attorneys' fees; and (c) under no circumstances will any participant be permitted to obtain awards for and hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages, other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased.
13. WINNERS LIST: For a list of each Winner's first initial, last name, city and state, mail in a self-addressed, first-class stamped envelope to: HERSHEY'S BLISS® SHARE THE BLISS™ Contest Winners List Request, P.O. Box 3450, Dept. 6961-745, Young America, MN 55558-3450, by 12/31/09.
14. SPONSOR: The Hershey Company, 100 Crystal A Drive, Hershey, PA.