Barenaked Ladies Love Their Fans, Hate Quebec and Rhode Island

I don't typically mention contests from bands here (though I'm going to do so a couple times here in the next few days), but I was amused by this, the rules and regulations for a recently-launched contest the Barenaked Ladies are running to promote their upcoming kids' music CD Snacktime.

The assignment is -- draw the band. "Barenaked Ladies just want to see the most creative cartoon of them," they say, and the winner will receive a BNL hoodie, t-shirt, and personally autographed copy of Snacktime.

Yeah, yeah, cute, whatever, but the rules, goodness, those are long, though the band probably does have a few more fans than the bands typically releasing albums in the genre. They're capped by the final statement -- "The contest is open to legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec and Rhode Island)." The pure randomness of the statement (which I'm sure is backed by very sound legal reasoning amused me. Anyone from Quebec or Rhode Island care to share why they might be prohibited from entering said contest?

Comments

[Christopher Lambacher]

Quebec is frequently excluded from such contests because of different rules about what the contest must do to be legal. A fuller explanation is available here.

I would guess that Rhode Island is similarly encumbered by extra rules.

[kelli ann]

whoa! colour me amazed. i frankly had never given this oddity much thought- just chalked it up to one more of our 'differences,' i guess:: i am so tickled by the link Mr. Lambacher provided --