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Marketing treasure hunt trips in historic graveyard -Hub officials assail another sales gambit
By Raja Mishra and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | February 23, 2007

The would-be treasure hunters said the clue -- "by the name of a patriot at rest in Philly" -- was a dead giveaway that a valuable hidden coin, part of a Dr Pepper promotional stunt, was to be found in Boston's 347-year-old Granary Burying Ground, where Benjamin Franklin's family and other historic notables rest.

They were right. But no one will win this treasure hunt.

After discovering another unconventional marketing campaign gone awry, angry Boston officials locked the cemetery grounds yesterday, fearing that the landmark cemetery would be damaged by overeager contestants seeking to win the North American top prize of $1 million. Their action frustrated dozens of people who had unraveled clues over the past month and were waiting to get in to seize the booty.

Cadbury Schweppes PLC, which makes Dr Pepper, canceled the Boston portion of the 23-city coin hunt promotion yesterday after acknowledging it had stashed the coin, in a leather pouch, amid the remains of Samuel Adams , John Hancock , Paul Revere , and other historic figures. The coin is still missing.

"The coin is inside the park," Cadbury Schweppes spokesman Greg Artkop told the Globe. "We agree with the Park Department's decision to lock the gates. We wouldn't do anything to desecrate this cemetery."

Yesterday evening, Dr Pepper e-mailed Boston-area contestants, informing them the game was off. Instead, the company said, it will conduct a random drawing from those registered on its website to award $10,000, the jackpot that would have gone to whoever found the Boston coin.

Dr Pepper also said that the entire contest is over, announcing that the $1 million prize is in Houston. Artkop said there had been no complaints in the 22 other cities in the United States and Canada that were part of the promotion. He said he did not know of the controversy in Boston until the Globe asked about it.

Boston parks officials said city lawyers will take the matter up with Cadbury Schweppes and might seek compensation for the additional police details used to protect the cemetery. They did not estimate the cost, but were astounded that a major corporation would authorize such a stunt in a historic site, one stop on the Freedom Trail.

"It absolutely is disrespectful," said Boston Parks Commissioner Toni Pollak. "It's an affront to the people who are buried there, our nation's ancestors."

Just last month, a guerrilla marketing campaign caused brief pandemonium in the Boston area after police responded to reports of possible bombs that turned out to be electronic signs promoting a Cartoon Network show, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

While critics lampooned local officials as having overreacted, the network, its corporate parent Turner Broadcasting System, and the New York marketing firm apologized and paid $2 million in compensation to local governments and law enforcement agencies. The two Boston area men who installed the signs on overpasses, bridges, and elsewhere face criminal charges.

Like the Cartoon Network, Dr Pepper was counting on unconventional marketing techniques that use word-of-mouth and Internet buzz, which many firms have found effective in reaching consumers. As in that earlier incident, the Dr Pepper "Hunt for More" marketing campaign was executed by an intermediary, in this case Circle One Marketing of Norwalk, Conn.

Circle One partner Mark Szuchman said the coins were hidden by another marketing firm, PromoWatch of Lauderhill, Fla. But he said both firms decided where they should go.

"We were looking for high-traffic, public locations," Szuchman said in a telephone interview. "We had no intention of creating any problems within the park. We're sorry if any problem was caused."

Szuchman said it was not clear when the coins were placed. The Dr Pepper promotion started Jan. 23. The Cartoon Network scare happened on Jan. 31.

Yesterday afternoon, the incident took an even odder turn: Even with directions by cellphone from a Circle One executive, a city parks official spent 45 minutes searching but could not find the coin. It was definitely not in or around the Franklin family monument, where many contestants were convinced it was hidden .

City officials said the failure to quickly locate the coin buttressed their concern that the cemetery could have been overrun by prize-seekers digging and disrupting the burying ground.

"If we can't find it with directions, I would fear that people would break things or destroy things as they conducted a search," said Kelly J. Thomas , a project manager for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. "A million dollars is a lot of money."

A police detail was kept at the cemetery overnight to keep people out, and another team accompanied by a Circle One manager was scheduled to look again today.

In the promotion, customers could buy specially-marked bottles of the soft drink each day to get codes printed on the underside of the caps or behind labels. Entering a new code daily on the Dr Pepper website would produce a new clue to find the coin in the city closest to the contestant. Clue by clue, a state would be revealed, then a city, then a neighborhood, on down to the actual hiding place. The coins, one in each city, could be redeemed for values ranging from $10,000 to $1 million.

The 29th clue for Boston indicated the coin was in the vicinity of the Orpheum Theater, across the street from the cemetery. The 30th and final clue in the Boston hunt was: "You're hot on the trail, though the place may feel chilly. The coin rests by the name of a patriot at rest in Philly."

That clue was released Tuesday at 3 a.m., and within minutes, dozens of people were camped out in front of the cemetery, waiting for it to open, according to contestants who said they were there. Park officials had closed the burying ground Monday night because of icy paths. Frustrated treasure hunters called the city demanding it be opened, the first time the city discovered the promotion.

"The people who were out all night, they started to get really, really angry," said Jason Rihel, 30, a postdoctoral fellow in biology at Harvard and an avid participant in the hunt.

He said the missing coin might mean wrongdoing. "If somebody got it, they did it illegally by jumping the fence," he said. "This reminds me of the whole 'Aqua Teen' thing. It got blown out of proportion."

Prompted by her brother-in-law, who deciphered the clues and promised to split the winnings, Emily Warner and her boyfriend, Scott Chipman, drove to Boston yesterday from Springfield, only to discover the graveyard was locked.

Told that the winner will now be chosen by a random drawing, Warner said she enjoyed the contest, but not the way it was handled by Dr Pepper.

"It kind of stinks for people like me who made it all the way through, and for people like us who drove and searched," she said in a telephone interview. "I think they should have gotten permission from the city and probably gone about it in a better way, so it wouldn't have ended this way."