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‘Abe’ fry fetches $75,100
Internet casino firm makes winning bid for McDonald’s French fry in the likeness of Lincoln.
February 18, 2005: 7:34 AM ESTNEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Remember the McDonald’s “French fry” shaped like Abraham Lincoln — the prop for those humorous ads the restaurant chain ran recently?
Well, it sold for $75,100 — and that’s no joke.
An Internet casino, GoldenPalace.com, said it had secured the winning bid for the fry — which is not real but was a prop used in a McDonald’s ad — and plans to take it on a nationwide tour along with the “Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich” the company bought on eBay (Research) last November for $28,000.
Millions of people saw the “Abe fry” in a pair of humorous McDonald’s (Research) ads that first aired during this year’s Super Bowl.
The tongue-in-cheek ads featured a couple who went to a McDonald’s for dinner and made the impossible discovery of a French fry resembling the nation’s 16th president.
Once word of the “Lincoln” fry filtered through their neighborhood, the couple decided to capitalize on the “prized possession” and sold the fry at auction.
After the ads ran, McDonald’s decided to sell the prop — roughly four inches tall — in an auction on Yahoo! to raise proceeds to benefit Ronald McDonald House charities.
“With the sandwich already in our collection, and our corporate philosophy of helping those in need, buying the Lincoln Fry was a given. This is a great day for marketing and a great day for Abe Lincoln,” GoldenPalace.com CEO Richard Rowe said in a statement.
