Roll Up the Rim to Win
Tim Hortons1986
Roll Up the Rim to Win is a 1986 packaging promotion for Tim Hortons.
The line
Please play again
Why it works
In 1985 Tim Hortons wanted a contest it could afford. Pull-tab cups would have doubled the cost of every cup, so the marketer Ron Buist asked the chain's cup maker whether it could print on the strip of paper that is rolled down to form the rim. It could, and the message stayed hidden until the drinker unrolled it. Roll Up the Rim to Win launched in 1986; to convince sceptical customers that the prizes were real, stores displayed them, with cars parked outside. It became an annual Canadian ritual and is studied as packaging turned into the medium: the entry form was the cup in your hand. It also shows how promotions age. Environmental groups attacked the millions of disposable cups; in 2019 the company said its biggest promotion "didn't work"; the pandemic pushed play onto the app in 2020, and the much-hated "Please Play Again" was retired in 2021. After guests said they missed the tactile roll, paper rims returned alongside the app in 2025.
Techniques
- Participation Hides the prize message under the cup's rim, so every drinker plays simply by rolling it up.
- Logos Parks real prize cars outside stores so sceptical customers can see for themselves that the rewards are genuine.
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