Bacardi auctions a suitcase on eBay

I got a weird email last night with that as a subject line. My first thought was that it was spam and on reading it, I was not immediately convinced otherwise. A bcc list, not addressed to anyone, little explanations. Looking further I realised that it was associated with Bacardi’s Murmansk Route , a Spanish promotion where a 4 groups of friends have to travel from Spain to Russia with only 1400E and a locked suitcase they only get to open when they get to the end. (what do they say to Customs when asked if they packed the case themselves?)

Now they are offering one of those mysterious cases on eBay, for someone else to find out the mystery. It seems to be going well so far, with a price over 4k euros and 125 bids.

The story of the journey has been on the site and on YT and on blogs, as the groups made their way across Europe. By offering this, they give more people the chance to join in the fun beyond just watching the travellers and win something special “The few people who know what the suitcase contains ensure that it will change the life of the person who manages to get it.”

I’m not sure what to make of the email though, although the language style can be assumed to be from someone who is a non-native English speaker, the lack of name, introduction or explanation of what they are doing with the money are more fundamental mistakes for anyone trying to run a campaign. I like the premise of the campaign, this bit needs a little polish though.