USA: Sprite.com Goes Live!

Beginning Sunday, Oct. 15, teens will experience the freedom of shopping and purchasing online -- without a credit card. Sprite has joined forces with RocketCash, a leading online gateway featuring more than 100 e-tailers, to create Sprite.com, (www.sprite.com ), a portal dedicated to enabling teens to shop online and buy what they want without a credit card.When Sprite.com goes live this weekend, teens will be able to collect and redeem RocketCash codes that are featured under-the-caps of 20-ounce, 1-liter and 500-ml bottles of Sprite. The RocketCash codes represent the online currency that enables teens to make purchases at Sprite.com. Through 2001, Sprite intends to distribute more than one billion Sprite bottles marked with the special Sprite.com/RocketCash codes, or with instant-win messages for free Sprite. Consumers simply log into Sprite.com and enter the codes found under Sprite caps to determine the denomination of Sprite.com/RocketCash they have won -- anywhere from 20 cents to one dollar per cap.To further empower teens to shop online, Sprite.com will offer a special "account-stuffing" bonus. Cyber-shoppers who activate a RocketCash account at Sprite.com and enter the codes for 15 caps will automatically receive a $5 bonus in their RocketCash accounts.RocketCash's proprietary technology also allows teens to supplement their RocketCash account balances with money orders, personal checks, credit card deposits, RocketCash gift certificates and special online incentive reward programs.Sprite.com's roster of more than 100 merchants includes leading online and offline brands such as Emusic, GraffittiOnline, Eve.com, Borders, WorldCom Prepaid and PacSun, that feature a variety of teen-relevant merchandise. Some merchants will provide special offers exclusively to Sprite.com participants including discounts, proprietary merchandise and gifts with purchase.