Fact Check

Excedrin Toys For Tots

Will Excedrin donate money to the Toys for Tots program for each visitor to their web site?

Published Dec. 12, 2002

Claim:

Claim:   Excedrin will donate money to the Toys for Tots program for each visitor who clicks on their web site.


Status:   Not any more.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2002]




Excedrin, the aspirin company, along with the United States Marines are donating $1.00 to Toys for Tots for you by simply logging onto the following link:

https://www.excedrin.com

There's no catch. Just click on the "Toys For Tots" link. It takes less than a minute....



Origins:   Excedrin, a headache relief product from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, was offering to donate money to the Toys for Tots program for each visitor who came to their site and clicked on the Toys for Tots logo in December 2002. (Toys for Tots is a charitable program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which collects donations of new, unwrapped toys and distributes them as Christmas gifts to needy children.)

Although the circulating message claimed that Excedrin was donating $1 to Toys for Tots for each web site visitor, neither the Excedrin web site nor the Bristol-Myers Squibb web site mentioned that amount; they both simply stated that for each click Excedrin "will donate money to help the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation buy gifts for needy families." (Their public relations department did confirm for us that they were donating $1 per click, however.) The Excedrin web site mentioned that the charity promotion would run "through December 31, 2002, or until the $5,000 maximum donation level has been reached, whichever occurs sooner," so if they truly were donating $1 per click, they probably reached their maximum donation level long before the December 31 cut-off date.

Last updated:   5 October 2007


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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