HBO competition prize is a cardboard box where you can watch TV in private

By Trevor Mogg November 5, 2019

Introducing: The HBO Box

HBO has had the ingenious idea of making a box where you can watch TV in private. Although it is a rather small one.

The cardboard creation, which is black and box-shaped, is the top prize in a contest aimed at college students who might not have access to the kind of privacy they’d like in their dorm room.

A promotional video almost as daft as the idea itself describes the box in exceptional detail, highlighting its “dual leg chambers,” internal shelf, and ventilation holes. It also praises its portability, though you might not want to use it on the train.

“Featuring the latest in cardboard technology, we took a cardboard box … and painted it black,” the video’s narrator explains in a somewhat deadpan tone.

Fooji, the promotions company behind HBO’s wacky marketing stunt, is offering the HBO Box as a prize in a contest running through Thursday. So, yes, you still have a chance to be the proud owner of this limited edition contraption.

Hey college students! If you missed your chance to get your very own HBO Box, you’ll get to try again tomorrow at noon Eastern. Tweet the + #HBOBoxChallenge + #giveaway tomorrow at 12!

NoPurNec. 18+/age of maj Ends 11/7/19. Rules: https://t.co/IrafUOjTuZ pic.twitter.com/5s2T8tmLQk

— Fooji (@gofooji) November 5, 2019

But first, if you can be bothered, you’ll have to find out if you fit the criteria for entry.

Entrants must, for example, have a .edu email address, be 18 or over, and live in the U.S. in a location where either FedEx or Doordash operate — because that winning box has to be delivered, possibly inside another box.

Finally, you’ll have to come up with a darn good reason why you need the HBO Box, and tell Fooji about it.

To offer students a further incentive to enter (what do you mean a box isn’t enough?), additional prizes for the several hundred winners will include Apple AirPods, HBO-branded shirts, and sticker sheets. If you’re keen to read up on all of the competition rules, you’ll probably change your mind once we tell you that there are seven pages of them.

And here’s a note to all of the winners: Once you realize that the HBO Box is as bonkers as it sounds, you can spend some of your time repurposing it into a pair of virtual reality goggles. Brilliant.

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