7-Election
On Oct. 1, 2008, 7 Eleven convenience stores introduced blue Barack Obama and red John McCain coffee cups to launch their Presidential cup poll. Now through Election Day, coffee purchasers can show their political support by filling up with McCain or Obama. The results of the purchases are tracked nationwide and updated online at www.7-election.com.
My initial reaction was: FINALLY! Thank God! No longer will I have to turn to the professional pollsters at CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and the New York Times who do this sort of thing for a living. Now I can get all of my election updates through 7 Eleven and the infinite wisdom they serve piping hot, 20 ounces at a time!
The poll is actually pretty popular with the public. So much so that BusinessWeek ran a short article in its Oct. 20, 2008 issue. In it I discovered that 7 Eleven had done this in the two previous elections and, according to 7 Eleven spokeswoman, Margaret Chabris, the Presidential cup poll had “accurately predicted the winners within a few percentage points” in both 2000 and 2004.
I cast my first Presidential vote in 2000, so I remember it well. The outcome was so wild and unexpected that I had a hard time believing that a coffee cup poll could have predicted the results, so I checked out the 7-Election Web site. After first looking at the 2008 update, I clicked on the “fun facts” link and was transferred to a new page. There I read some details about past Presidential cup polls. I found one “fact” particularly interesting. It reads:
“In the 2000 7-Election, our George W. Bush coffee cup outsold Al Gore’s coffee cup by just 1 percentage point.”
Can anyone tell me what’s wrong with Margaret Chabris’s earlier statement?
I’m embarrassed to have to point this out, but George W. Bush did not win the popular vote in 2000. He lost to Al Gore by a slim margin of one half of a percentage point. Therefore, the 2000 7-Election poll was, in fact, inaccurate. For Chabris to say that their poll accurately predicted the results of the 2000 election is misleading because Bush took the White House with his Electoral College victory, not by the outcome of the general election.
7 Eleven would like you to think that they are making political history. I see it more as a shameful ploy to squeeze a few extra dimes out of their loyal clientele. Why? Because 7 Eleven offers coffee in four different sizes; 12, 16, 20, and 24 ounces, but customers can only participate in the poll if they buy 20 ounces of coffee.
All things aside, I’ll admit that this truly is a fascinating concept, but who seriously needs 20 ounces of coffee? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I get sufficiently juiced up on 12. I guess that means I won’t be participating in this year’s Presidential cup poll…bummer!
Oh, by the way, Obama is up 60 percent to 40 percent.
November 4th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
There is nothing wrong with her statement. She was referring to 2 separate election. She was not referring to the 2000 election only.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I realize that she was referring to two separate elections. Although the 7-Election campaign did get it right in 2004, it was wrong in 2000…or, actually, right depending on your political views.
The point I was trying to make is that the purchasing of coffee with either Bush or Gore cups can only be compared to the process of casting a ballot in a popular vote. Gore won the popular vote, but failed to win the election because Bush secured more votes in the electoral college. Since 7-Eleven did not set up an electoral college program for their coffee cup campaign, they cannot say that 7-Election accurately predicted the 2000 winner.