McDonald's, Sega Sweep Happy Meals

McDonald's Corp. and Sega of America have teamed up for a Happy Meal promotion and sweepstakes that uses premiums as game pieces.

The Dec. 3-27 effort features Sega's gaming character Sonic The Hedgehog; a Search for the Silver Game sweepstakes seeds special silver premiums (and winning tickets) in Happy Meals. Twenty-five grand-prize winners get $2,500 cash each to build their own videogame system; another 2,475 winners get videogames.

A slate of eight handheld videogames serve as Happy Meals premiums, from Sonic The Hedgehog Extreme Boarding (players snowboard through a course to collect rings) to Billy's Giant Egg (players collect fruit to feed the egg, then move up a level when it hatches). The Marketing Store Worldwide, Oak Brook, IL, is McDonald's lead promo agency.

TV, radio and online ads support. The promo complements Sega's holiday push for the Sonic Heroes line.

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