RyanAir gives away tickets to mothers?

Or: How you all reveal your birth dates and the number of children publicly online!

Sandra has one child and turned 40 last June 8th. Jaqueline turns 40 this year on June 19th and even has two children. Nadine isn't quite that old yet, she was born on June 3rd. 33 years old but also has 2 children. From where I know this? Well, from themselves (I'll just leave out the ladies' last names at this point).

I don't know these ladies, but they all have a few things in common: They say they are mothers, all have birthdays in June and revealed this in the comments in a competition. Your goal: to win RyanAir flight tickets.

But will disclosing their data in the comments ultimately benefit them?

The lie

The competition claims:

We are looking for mothers who gave birth in June.

RyanAir is celebrating with free flights for people born in June. Press the image and get your (2) plane tickets to your favorite travel destination!

This competition description already contains a big lie: RyanAir is celebrating with free flights and is looking for people born in June. Why should they? This is a false argument that is intended to build up a potential target group who, due to their affiliation, see themselves as having a higher chance of winning and are therefore more inclined to take part in the associated competition. The creation of a perceived “winning elite” in which you find yourself.

But that's not the case and we have to disappoint: Anyone who clicks on this picture in accordance with the rules (and is identified as a participant in Germany) will be directed to a website that offers a question and answer session that is irrelevant to the content. By the way, people no longer talk about looking for mothers with a birthday in June. The reason is quite simple: Because both this round of questions and the mother's birthday argument play no role whatsoever.

Technically speaking, this round of questions merely forms a bridge to a real competition, which is an affiliate competition. By the way: RyanAir has absolutely nothing to do with the entire process here!

From fake to affiliate

At this point you have to draw a line: The final affiliate competition is legal, but the previous bait is a constructed fake competition. Fake competitions are the little siblings of commercial fake news: They have to be constructed in such a way that people believe them. The author doesn't care whether the content is correct. To a certain extent, fake competitions are also pseudo-editorial.

Same here: If you take part in this competition, whoever has installed the link TO this competition on their website will receive a commission. This is also the reason why such fake competitions are constructed: the aim is to display advertising or to incorporate advertising links in a credible and effective way. The author of the fake competition simply doesn't care whether their own content is correct.

The only thing you should know about the affiliate linked at the end is that this is about DATA. In other words, the participant data is fed into a database and the respective participant can then receive ADVERTISING EMAILS, ADVERTISING CALLS and much more. receive. The user can find this information, also in modified form, in SMALL PRINT under the competition form:

Yes, I agree that a selection of the companies listed in the sponsor list will inform me by post, telephone, email or SMS about offers from their respective business area. You can influence the selection of advertising companies yourself. I can revoke my consent at any time. Further information about this here.

In most cases, such user data is also sold. Such a data set can bring the seller a few euros. By the way, the affiliate competition built into the end is not illegal. However, it has nothing to do with the previous bait.