Members Only

Answers to AMA Member Challenge
October 2008

1. Microsoft asked this comedian to star in its new marketing campaign and—yada yada yada—he’s got a $10 million contract.

• Chris Rock
• Jon Stewart
• Larry the Cable Guy
• Jerry Seinfeld

Correct answer: Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld will appear with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as part of a $300 million ad campaign to rejuvenate the company’s Windows brand.

2. Fans of the popular, unofficial online version of what classic game have been at a loss for words since Hasbro and Mattel forced Facebook to remove it?

• Bingo
• Scrabble
• Risk
• Clue

Correct answer: Scrabble. Calcutta-based brothers Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla launched Scrabulous, their unofficial online version of Scrabble, in July 2007. It became wildly popular, attracting about 600,000 Facebook players a day. Now Hasbro and Mattel, which own the game’s rights, have taken legal action against the Agarwallas. The Scrabulous-bereft can check out the brothers’ newest online game, Wordscraper.

3. Eureka! Which state, the U.S.’s most populous, just became the first to ban trans fats in its 88,000 restaurants?

• New York
• Texas
• Califonia
• Florida

Correct answer: California. Although some U.S. cities—including New York and Philadelphia—have banished the heart unhealthy ingredient, California is the first state to ban trans fats. The law goes into effect for restaurants in 2010 and for retail baked goods by 2011.

4. More than 250 customers have signed up for a planned $200,000 space flight on the "Galactic" brand of which airline?

• American
• Lufthansa
• Virgin
• BOAC

Correct answer: Virgin. British billionaire Sir Richard Branson recently unveiled the mothership aircraft White Knight Two “Eve” (named for his mother, Eve). White Knight Two will carry the tourist craft SpaceShipTwo. No date has been set for the launch.

5. Over 100 college presidents have signed the "Amethyst Initiative," an intervention urging elected officials to consider what?

• Offering more scholarships
• Lowering the drinking age
• Banning cafeteria junk food
• Raising the driving age

Correct answer: Lowering the drinking age (from 21 to 18). The Amethyst Initiative, named for the gemstone once thought to ward off drunkenness, was started by John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, who stated, "This is a law [the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984] that is routinely evaded."