Prize Patrol

The Prize Patrol is the team from Publishers Clearing House that knocks on the door of a recent entrant of the company's sweepstakes and surprises them with the news that they have won a large cash prize.

The Prize Patrol was founded in 1988 by Todd Sloane and Dave Sayer, two employees of Publishers Clearing House who worked in the company's advertising department.

Prior to the creation of the Prize Patrol, Publishers Clearing House winners of major prizes were notified by phone, and then later brought to New York to film scripted television commercials. In 1988, the northern New Jersey location of the company's first Ten Million Dollar winner provided a unique opportunity for Dave Sayer to notify the winner -- Barbara Armellino -- with the exciting news that she had won the sweepstakes. No cameras were present for this notification, but after hearing about all the excitement that transpired when Mrs. Armellino was informed of her good fortune, Todd Sloane proposed the idea of videotaping the next reaction.

To test the videotaped notification concept out, in August 1988, Sloane traveled to Austin, TX with a camcorder, while another PCH employee knocked on the door of John Yancy to inform him that he was the newest million dollar winner in the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. Sloane's camcorder rolled as Yancy and his wife Julie screamed and hugged each other upon hearing the good news. After reviewing the videotaped footage of this winning moment, Sloane recognized the raw emotions captured would make for compelling television advertising, adding credibility and proving to the TV viewing audience that "real people really win the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes."

Based on the initial experiment, Sloane and Sayer traveled across the country for a series of winner notifications of prizes ranging from $10,000.00 to $10,000,000.00 and the Prize Patrol was born. After test marketing the "real winning moments" campaign in December 1988, a new national TV campaign featuring numerous "winning moments" was rolled out in July 1989.

Since this humble start, the Prize Patrol has become a national advertising icon and the surprise winner notifications have been a staple of the company's advertising for nearly 20 years. The Prize Patrol has also been parodied on late night television shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show and referenced in numerous network sitcoms.

The surprise prize award has transformed from a winning moment shot with a home video camcorder, to a live television commercial that has at times been aired on Super Bowl Sunday. The Prize Patrol team has even appeared as "themselves" in sitcoms such as Cheers and feature films (Let's Go To Prison), and has been profiled and interviewed on news magazine programs (including Dateline NBC, 48 Hours, Joan Lunden) and talk shows (Oprah, The Today Show, CBS This Morning).

Today, the Prize Patrol is made up of founding members Todd Sloane (who is now PCH's Senior Vice President of Creative), and Dave Sayer (Executive Director of Advertising and Public Relations), along with the newest member Eve Fish (Director of Promotion Strategy).

Source: Publishers Clearing House