'Extremely generous': Viral social media post gets Winnipeg man free wings for a year
Winnipegger Howie Prociuk was on a father/son trip south of the border to see the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis last month, when a funny thought occurred to him.
"We're at the hotel in Minneapolis on Friday before the game and I go to my son 'Let's do something crazy on our sign that will maybe get us on (television)," said Prociuk.
He wrote, "My wife thinks I'm watching the game at Smitty's in Winnipeg … let's go Jays!" in thick black marker on a piece of white poster board, and the two headed off to the game.
Prociuk was successful in getting his sign televised Friday night. Back in Winnipeg, Smitty's marketing director Jessica McGregor was going about her evening when she was sent a photo of Prociuk and his sign.
"Our owners got a text message from one of their friends who happened to be watching the Jays game saying 'did you see this?'" said McGregor.
She posted the photo to the Smitty's Facebook page in an effort to find out who Prociuk was, and to reward him for his loyalty.
"I immediately took it to social media, and from there is kind of just spiraled …we kind of exploded overnight in terms of how viral we went in Winnipeg, which was very exciting for us," McGregor said.
She said Prociuk had no idea it was happening because he's not on social media.
"He said he didn’t find out about it until he crossed the border and his phone blew up with people trying to get a hold of him so we could get a hold of him," said McGregor.
"My phone, it was like sitting next to R2-D2, it went bonkers. People I haven’t heard from in years contacting me," Prociuk said.
In thanks for the cross-border shout-out, Smitty's gave Prociuk free wings for a year from any location in Winnipeg, along with some promotional gifts from local breweries.
"Smitty's was extremely generous and gave me a little bit of swag for my wife and myself, and then they gave me a coupon for chicken wings for a year," Prociuk said.
"We'll definitely be enjoying the wings!"
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
As GC Strategies partner is admonished by MPs, RCMP confirms search warrant executed
The RCMP confirmed Wednesday it had executed a search warrant at an address registered to GC Strategies. This development comes as MPs are enacting an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power, summoning one of its contractors to appear before the House of Commons to be admonished publicly for failing to answer questions related to the ArriveCan app.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 across the country.
Earthquake jolts southern Japan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, without issuing a tsunami warning.