Dubbed the “lucky man” by his friends for the number of contests he has won, Hassan Saad Mubarak Bashanfar said he could not believe it when he was told he had won the car. The newspaper, a sister publication of Arab News, is in the seventh week of a reduced subscription campaign.
Bashanfar, who has been winning prize draws and competitions for the past 10 years, became an Asharq Al-Awsat subscriber in February with hopes of winning a prize.
The international Arabic newspaper, an affiliate of the Saudi Research and Publishing Company (SRPC), launched a reduced subscriptions campaign in February that is to end in June. Prize draws are held each week and at the end of each month.
During a recent visit to Riyadh to receive his prize, Bashanfar drew the name of the winner of the campaign’s eighth week in the presence of Bandar Al-Asiri, director general of the Al-Khaleejiah Company for Advertising and Public Relations, an affiliate of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG).
The winner of the eighth week is Abdul Rahman Abdul Aziz Al-Ajaji from Riyadh who has won a 2010 BMW 3 Series. He will receive his car next week.
Three subscribers from Riyadh, two from the Eastern region and one each from Makkah, Jeddah and Yanbu have won eight 2010 BMW 3 Series each week for eight weeks. A subscriber from Al-Khafji won the first monthly prize, a 2010 BMW 5 Series.
Bashanfar, a salesman with the Saudi Company for Tin Industries in Jeddah, said he is subscribed to all of SRPC’s publications “so that his family consisting of his father, mother, four sisters and a brother can read them.” He said he will continue his hobby of participating in competitions which began in 1998 when he was 18, adding that he has won cars, air tickets, and cash prizes ranging from SR300 to SR100,000.
In addition to the weekly and monthly prizes, the newspaper will hold a prize draw for a 2010 BMW 7 Series at the end of the campaign.
