Dr Pepper made to provide $100K prize to 2 college students competing for school tuition giveaway

Through the halftime present at an SEC championship sport between Louisiana State College and Georgia, contestants competed for the prize cash by throwing footballs into large soda cans. 

Nevertheless, Reagan Whitaker of Baylor College, and Kayla Gibson of the College of St. Augustine tied within the first spherical with 11, after which tied once more within the second spherical. 

As a substitute of permitting a 3rd spherical tie-breaker, apparently because of time constraints, Dr. Pepper opted to as an alternative title Whitaker the winner. The choice was based mostly on an obscure rule which counts the factors from a qualifying spherical earlier than the precise occasion, and didn’t go down nicely with the group. 

Livid that Dr. Pepper wouldn’t give away double the money, boos and jeers rang out throughout the stadium, whereas the hashtag #JusticeForKayla gathered momentum on social media. 

“Give them each the cash you cheapskates!” wrote one Twitter consumer. “Everyone knows you may afford to vary ONE extra individual’s life,” one other said. 

Others lamented the competitors’s very existence in response to the controversy:  “Dr. Pepper pitting two school college students in opposition to one another on nationwide TV with a tuition prize is so miserable each time.”

One other consumer added: “In a correct society we wouldn’t want Dr. Pepper to fund larger schooling.” 

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Social media marketing campaign forces hand

The soda model clearly felt the strain and bent to the group’s calls for by the fourth quarter, deciding to award each contestants $100,000 every, first introduced by CBS reporter Jenny Dell. 

“Nicely, you all noticed the unprecedented double tie of the Dr Pepper halftime tuition giveaway,” she mentioned. “We’ve simply been informed by Dr Pepper that they’re going to award each finalists $100,000. So each Kayla Gibson and Reagan Whitaker are taking residence $100K. Congratulations, girls, and nice job by Dr Pepper there.” 

The competitors has been held yearly since 2008, however this was the primary time a tie-breaker ever occurred, in response to Keurig Dr Pepper, the mother or father firm of the soda model. In whole, the corporate has given away $13 million in school tuition charges by means of the competition. 

“We’re honored to have fun inspiring college students yearly, and excited that this surprising flip of occasions gave us the chance to increase the grand prize award to a different deserving pupil,” Andrew Springate, chief advertising officer for Keurig Dr Pepper, mentioned in a press release.

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