I work in McDonalds so i know i'm biased but.
I know someone personally to win a holiday 3 years ago.
I witnessed a customer win an XBOX360 last year.
This year, I witnessed a teenager win an ipod.

Most of the prizes go unclaimed due to people not bothering with the collect to win. I clean tables and more often than not, people will peel off the stickers, see that they haven't won an instant win prize and just leave it on the tray. Example: This year the ipod prizes are denoted by Whitechapel and Old Kent Road. There's millions of Whitechapels, but only 40,000 Old Kent Roads. As a result, I have 2 Old Kent Roads, recovered from trays, worth one iPod each. One each for my daughters. Another colleague has recovered Coventry Street and won a weekend break. (He brought his on a McFlurry). We just have to work out how to claim them now as we're staff members and under section 1.1.i of the T's and C's, we're not allowed. Shit-bust!

A lot of the staff play in this manner, though I don't know anyone who has denied a member of the public a chance of winning fair and square, so nobody will peel a ticket off a fry box before it's gone out to a customer. Food prizes are generally given to customers who are nice if we happen to find them left on a tray, though that's only because I can't go in and claim 8 big macs from my co-workers!

So to re-cap, the prizes are real. The chances of winning are real, but you need to play the game properly. I reckon that about 10% of the stickers are thrown in the bin unchecked and about 70% of the streets are chucked after being disregarded. (my estimates not the company's data)

Word on the grapevine is that neither of the houses last year were claimed; just thrown away!
(sunray18, Thu 28 Apr 2011, 19:15, Reply)