I had previously talked about some of the previous contests mtv ran back in the 80’s
including van halen's lost weekend, the time the network gave away a whole town
or the time they gave away a home in john cougar mellancamps home state of Indiana.
The link to all those videos is down below in the description box. But today I want to talk
about the most tragic contest the network ran. The winner would end up being worse off after he
collected his prizes from the network and that's what were going to explore in today's video.
The 80’s saw a rise of the Yuppies, young hip urban professionals with well paying jobs and
upward mobility. They also became detested by those whose neighbourhoods became gentfiried.
something that’s still happening to this very day. Wanting to capitalize on this resentment, MTV ran
a contest in 1989 called ‘Foreclose on a Yuppie.” Here’s the ad for the network ran for the contest.
Turned your favourite restaurants into hell holes of buffalo wings, bad jokes and bogus margaritas.
$15 bucks for chili? Is that a bonus or are you just glad to see me? Too bad.
Lived in greedy luxury while you live starved in a closet.
Greed is good but on january 1st you can avenge the scurge of the 80's and all it stood for.
I'll be right back beamer. On January 1st you can foreclose on a yuppy repossess all
the worldly possessions of greedy money grubbin Gavin of manhattan's upper west side. You'll get
luxury apartment, the tv, the stereo, the dog and the car. You'll win a professional
financial adviser and to give you something to play with we'll pay you $50,000. Let's get busy.
We'll even throw in a personal valet to take you shopping for your new 90's wardrobe.
Shall we buy some shoes sir? Why not? It's your money Gavin. Kick the 90's off repossess
the apartment, car, tv, stereo and dog beamer plus 50,000 just dial 1-900-328-2000 between
now and midnight december 31st the last greedy rotten second of the 80's The first hting we're
going to do is change your name to Axl. This contest is brought to you by levis 501 jeans.
The contest was meant to celebrate the end of the decade The lottery would be done through
telephone entries with the winner being randomly selected. The winner would receive a 1990 BMW,
a state of the art stereo system, a whopping 32” inch color tv,
an akita puppy, as well $50K to use towards buying stocks and $100K to use to purchase a property.
MTV would later decide not to give the contest winner an akita puppy instead substituting it for
a $1,000 cash after some animal lovers told the network the breed could be aggressive,
David Cohn MTV’s director of national promotions,would admit to the morning
call newspaper in 1989 "We were in the office thinking about what to do for the end of the
decade and we didn't want anything generic, but instead, something symbolic," he said. "The
yuppie is the symbol of the '80s. Everyone knows one or has probably been called one
when they're not in the room. "Our audience doesn't like to think of themselves as yuppies
and we thought that this would appeal to them, the opportunity to take one yuppie) down" he'd state.
The article would go on state In 1989, MTV devoted massive programming to yuppie-beloved videos by
the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Tracy Chapman, Milli Vanilli, Living Colour and Bon Jovi,
amongst others. The network seems willing to cater to yuppies' every whim, even if
it regularly portrays itself as on the cutting edge of popular culture the article would state.
The winner of the contest would be a 23 year old named John Rogers. Rogers was from a small
town named Knockemstiff in Ohio & Rogers was the perfect contest winner for the network, he was
unemployed while living in a small house & =he was anything but a yuppie. The small town he resided
in was surrounded by so much of his family he once dated a distant cousin without even knowing it.
Up until this point in his life,
Rogers mother would tell the Chicago Tribune her son was and i quote “basically average.”
Rogers would play drums and trombone while in high school and he and two friends would break
into the same school in his senior year and be caught. He would be put in a supervisory program
for three years & e would claim that he got into drugs at the time. After school he quickly
turned things around working a variety of jobs including construction, being a carny and a cable
TV installer.. By the time he won the contest, Rogers was unemployed after shooting himself in
the foot with his father’s .38 revolver. He would spend almost a week in the hospital recovering.
Rogers would be chosen out of more than 100,000 contest entries & he would admit to the Chicago
Tribune. “I was getting a little carried away with all that prize money for a while.
I was buying stuff that i never had before… I bought me a five piece drum set,
a $200 tattoo. I bought me a Nintendo. Mario -h’es huge on that TV.” Rogers would also get
engaged to a high school senior who was 17 at the time who he had been dating for a year.
But rumors started to circulate around town that he had won upwards of a $million dollars. Random
strangers would come up to him and ask him for money, while other times people attempted to break
into his house. Rogers would soon buy himself a gun just to protect himself and his property.
But it wouldn’t be the residents of the town that would be the biggest threat to him, but rather
himself. He would get into a serious car accident while driving his BMW one afternoon by himself on
the way to the way to pick up his fiance. He would be navigating a tight curve going 50mph, when the
posted speed was 30 and lost control of his car. He didn’t appear to be wearing a seatbelt and was
thrown into a tree. It would result in him being paralzyed in both arms and legs. From the profile
that the chicago tribune did about him it would appea he did regain some mobility in his hands.
His cash prizes would end up drying up pretty quickly. $60K of his prize would go towards taxes,
he would spend $10K on drums, video games and other entertainment items. He would pay
$6,000 to the hospital bills and be sued by the hospital for not paying his full bill of $33,000.
The rest of his money would dry up due to other medical expenses, probably from his first that
gunshot to his foot. Of course, not helping was that he didn’t have medical insurance.
MTV would end up tracking down the hospital Rogers was at and sending him get well soon balloons.
He would also end up breaking off his engagement with his girlfriend.
And he was asked by the chicago tribune whether he was resentful of his winnings or had regrets and
he would tell the paper some people say its gods way / he’s been throwing hints at me for a couple
of years. Mom thinks there is some reason I keep getting spared. She said there is some purpose.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for
watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. Take care.