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Is Edinburgh world class? Global games giant Parker Brothers is launching a worldwide vote to find the 22 greatest cities in the world that should be included on the new MONOPOLY Here & Now: World Edition game board – and Edinburgh is nominated! Beginning 22 January 2007 at midnight GMT/Universal Time, MONOPOLY fans around the world can visit www.monopoly.com to cast their online votes to help create the first-ever worldwide edition of the game. Voters are invited to cast their ballots for ten great cities each day of the vote, which will be open until 28 February 2007. The city that receives the most votes will be placed on the highest rent property traditionally held by Mayfair. The twenty cities that receive the most votes will be part of MONOPOLY history as the first cities selected to be on the World edition game board. However, two spaces on the board will be reserved for cities that are nominated through a wild card vote. Any city in the world can be nominated for these property spaces, which means that Edinburgh might appear on the game board next to Paris, London or New York. The wild card winners will occupy the low-rent property spaces traditionally held by Whitechapel and Old Kent Road. “MONOPOLY is the world’s most popular board game and it transcends cultural barriers,” said Helen Martin, global brand director for MONOPOLY brand. “More than 750 million people have played the game since it was first introduced nearly 75 years ago and its popularity shows no signs of slowing down.” As the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh is certainly deserving of a place on the board. From the time of the first clans; Edinburgh has had a pure indigenous history that not many cities can claim. The great Edinburgh castle dating back to the 12th century still remains the resting place of the crown jewels of Scotland, while the Queen’s official Scottish residence is still in Edinburgh at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Quite aside from the many historical features of the city, Edinburgh traditionally knows how to party. As a city alive with music, culture and tradition, its residents must get behind it and vote for Edinburgh. “The final result of the MONOPOLY Here & Now: World Edition voting may be just as surprising as the votes conducted in each country,” said Martin. “Only time will tell how the vote will turn out, and we hope that fans will vote early and often for their favourite cities.” The 68 cities nominated for the global vote include the following: Amsterdam Athens Barcelona Beijing Belgrade Berlin Bogota Boston Bratislava Brussels Bucharest Budapest Buenos Aires Cairo Cape Town Caracas Cardiff Chicago Copenhagen Dubai Dublin Edinburgh Frankfurt Helsinki Hong Kong Istanbul Jerusalem Kiev Kuala Lumpur Las Vegas Lisbon Ljublijana London Los Angeles Lyon Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Montreal Moscow Mumbai Munich New York Oslo Paris Prague QueenstownRiga Rio de Janeiro Rome SantiagoSeoul ShanghaiSingapore City Sofia St. Petersburg Stockholm Sydney Tallinn Tokyo Toronto Vancouver Vienna Vilnius Warsaw Washington, D.C. Zagreb Zurich For more than 70 years the official MONOPOLY board has represented the most elite locations in individual cities. However, recently Parker Brothers invited fans of the game to help update the board in their respective countries to reflect what the game board would look like if it were created today instead of in 1935. The votes resulted in the “Here & Now” versions of the game in each country – with often surprising results! In France, Paris never made it onto game board. In the United States, powerhouse city Dallas landed in the low-rent district. In Australia, fans logged more than 17 million votes. And in the UK, more votes were cast during the UK online vote than were cast in the local elections, which took place simultaneously. With Edinburgh missing out on making it onto the UK: Here & Now board this a perfect opportunity for the residents of the city to go one better and be classed amongst the world’s best when it comes to pride and passion for their hometown. Nearly 2 million foreign tourists visited Edinburgh last year (VisitScotland statistics) making it the second most visited UK city outside of London. With appeal like that it surely deserves to be recognised as a cultural heavyweight! The cities voted onto the final game board will be announced in August 2008. The new MONOPOLY Here & Now: World Edition will be available in stores around the world in autumn 2008. For more information contact Tom Cummings, Nick Theodosiou, Jasmine Agbulos or Corinna Field at Brazen PR On 0161 923 4994 or E: tomc@brazenpr.com, nickt@brazenpr.com, jasmine@brazenpr.com or corinna@brazenpr.com |