A contest for a trip to see the filming of a Super Bowl ad has triggered heated online discussion because the prize never materialized.

Jodie McPhee of Melbourne, Australia, saw the promotion online. The winner would get two tickets to Los Angeles and accommodations to watch the production. All she had to do was post a funny photo — which got her elevated to a finalist — and then post a funny blog about why she wanted to visit L.A.

On her blog, "Smartie's Place," McPhee wrote about a little pink plastic chicken that ran away to see the Super Bowl. She ended up winning the contest, partly with votes from her friends at VoteForTheWorst.com, a site that encourages people to vote for the worst "American Idol" contestants.

Problem was the contest was put on by MyBowlAd.com, which never followed through with making the commercial.

MyBowlAd was created last year by Mark Timms, a South Carolina resident who later brought on Evan White and Robert Howie, both of Ventura County. The ad concept was to sell small slices of time — one second of exposure on a sign or a couple seconds showing a company's logo on a T-shirt.

It was designed to allow small companies that couldn't afford a 30-second Super Bowl spot, which ran an average of $2.7 million this year, a chance to get some major exposure.

However, the idea didn't generate enough sponsors or revenue to finance the ad. And McPhee didn't get her trip, even though she won the online contest that was supposed to drum up interest and publicity.

The three men behind MyBowlAd went their separate ways afterward, but Timms plans to push the idea again for next year's game under the new name MySuperAd.

McPhee has made it her mission to challenge the ad concept on her Web site: MyBowlAdIsAScam.com.

"Fox and the NFL have final say on the commercials that air, and they're not about to let something this ridiculous on the air," she wrote in an e-mail.

McPhee said she was notified in September that she won the trip, long after it should have been obvious the ad wasn't happening. She received a congratulatory e-mail from White on Sept. 5.

"At no stage was there any mention that this may be postponed due to lack of funding," she wrote.

White said it was a big misunderstanding, explaining that the idea was to involve more people when the commercial was filmed.

"Smartie's mad because she thought she was winning a trip on a certain date," he said. "In fact, she was winning a trip for when it (the commercial) was shot.

"We all assumed that everyone entering understood that the prize was contingent on the ad being shot," White said.

"Everyone involved learned from the experience," he said. "When it is shot, everyone will have their chance to come."

White said McPhee didn't listen to his explanation and instead launched her online crusade, which has included personal attacks.

Different stories

Timms said the contest controversy was the reason he and White parted ways.

"I knew very little of the contest' and never approved the idea," Timms wrote in an e-mail.

He contends that White went ahead with the contest despite his objections. However, White counters that Timms and Howie supported it from the start.

That aside, Timms echoed White's argument about the prize.

"The contest that he (White) created said that the person would win a trip to watch the making of the MyBowlAd commercial," Timms wrote. "The commercial hasn't been filmed yet, so there will be no trip."

McPhee wasn't the only one who didn't get a prize. YouTube video blogger Ghostwise, aka Chris Binkowski of Canada, won a chance to star in the ad through a different contest on YouTube. That also included a trip to L.A. But he knew what would happen if there weren't enough sponsors.

"I knew that without advertisers on board there wouldn't be a commercial," Binkowski wrote in an e-mail. "Without a commercial to participate in, there would be no prize for me."

He said he did not take McPhee's stance that MyBowlAd was a scam. He said the prizes could only be expected if the effort succeeds.

Fuelmyblog.com hosted the contest McPhee won. Chief Executive Officer Kevin Dixie said his site has a disclaimer that it cannot be held responsible for any prizes offered by contest organizers, but he was caught off guard by what happened with the MyBowlAd contest.

"We have never nor would we ever deceive our users and frankly are disgusted this happened on our site," he wrote in an e-mail.

Dixie said the experience led Fuelmyblog to take steps to avoid similar problems in the future.

The site no longer hosts competitions for free, so that it can compensate someone if there is a problem. And it now works only with reputable Web sites that must guarantee prizes in writing.

Legal issues

Launching a contest has become easier with the use of the Internet — and a lot more complicated, said Sarah Bruno, an attorney with Arent Fox in Washington, D.C., who specializes in e-commerce, sweepstakes and contests.

It's a lot easier to quickly jump from the, "Hey, let's have a contest!" idea to putting something up online. Bruno said she sees more people launch a contest without thinking it through — even copying and pasting rules from another online contest and moving forward without any legal advice.

While it often works out fine, it also can be a recipe for disaster.

"It's really risky running an online contest ... there are a lot of issues people don't even realize," she said.

There are intellectual property issues and privacy concerns. If a contest is open to participants outside the U.S., it can become subject to laws in other countries.

In a case where a prize isn't awarded, companies can run into legal challenges under state lottery and gambling laws, as well as federal and state unfair competition laws, she said.

In some states, sponsors are required by law to award a prize.

Bruno couldn't comment on the MyBowlAd situation specifically but said the only way she could imagine a company not awarding a prize without being challenged on it would be if no one entered.

"If you're advertising a prize, you'd better award it," she said.

McPhee has written complaints to the attorneys general in South Carolina and California, the justice departments and governors of each state, Federal Trade Commission, Internal Revenue Service, National White Collar Crime Center, and Internet Crime Complaint Center, which operates in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Not giving any ground

McPhee is not pursuing civil litigation because she figures the prize was worth about 5,000 Australian dollars (about $4,567 in U.S. dollars at the conversion rate Wednesday) — far less than the estimated legal fees.

She said she hopes she's put off some companies from buying into MySuperAd. Her Web site lays out her case in painstaking detail, including copies of e-mail exchanges. She's also explained her situation to friends on VoteForTheWorst.com.

They have helped her dig up information, and people with legal backgrounds have offered her advice.

"There's no way I could have gotten this much information if it wasn't for everyone's help online," she wrote. McPhee calls the support "a great example of what can happen when an online community rallies behind a member."

She said what she wants is simple.

"I'd like all of this to be over. It's been going on for months now," she wrote. "I just want my trip!"