Imagine — some marketing yahoo at a radio station comes up with the idea of “Holding Your Wee for a Wii” that left this 28-year old mom* of three kids aged 10, 3 and 11 months dead of water intoxication after drinking nearly a gallon of water.

I cannot imagine the pain this family is enduring. My heart goes out to them, because this mom was just trying to get one of the hottest and coolest video game systems for her kids. Water intoxication is not widely known, but the sponsors of this contest should have had the sense to at least check before running such an idiotic contest. The idea behind it was to have a water-drinking contest where the contestant who drank the most water without going to the bathroom would win. This young mom was in 2nd place at the end, but excessive water killed her.

Some have said the dangers of too much water are common knowledge. I disagree, especially in an age where water consumption is encouraged, not discouraged and designer water is the order of the day. Yet ANY contest like this should have been vetted just to be sure there were no obvious dangers. I’m sure there was no malevolent intent, but it will be difficult to explain that to these kids and her bereft husband. And this, from the SacBee article really sets my teeth on edge:

Gina Sherrod, who competed with Strange in the contest, said her family listened to the radio show, and told her that a nurse was on air warning that drinking too much water is dangerous. Sherrod said a DJ rebuffed the nurse, saying the contestants signed waivers that addressed only publicity issues and made no mention of health or safety concerns.

Truth be told, I’m annoyed in general about the Wii. WE finally have a Wii. I dropped into Target early last Sunday morning and was able to put my hands on one of the three remaining from that morning’s shipment. Of course, it comes with only one “Wii-mote”, and the wireless remotes are as difficult to find (if not more difficult) than the damn console itself, so “wii” have some conflicts here in the house, since both kids can’t play against each other in games like Zelda without a second controller. It’s my belief that Nintendo intentionally created a market for this (very fun) game console that would keep the buzz going, and the supplies will stay down to keep the buzz up indefinitely.

For me, that means having to drop into the Stinkin’ Target once a week to see if they have any controllers yet. For this mom, it meant taking a lethal risk with her life in order to get something her family very much wanted. I’m sure it seemed easy to her, but in retrospect, there really wasn’t a sense of perspective put into this promo. Better that they should’ve had station dropins become eligible for a lottery than this.

It’s late, I’m rambling and I’m tired, so I’m probably not saying this as clearly as I’d like, but I’ll try and sum this up in a sentence using as few words as possible:

Radio station stupid and hopefully liable for the needless death of a young, dedicated mom. Stupid, stupid promotion.

Friday’s water drinking contest was not the first in the radio industry. Dave Gross, 46, a landscaper from Victorville in Southern California, said Strange’s death brought back bad memories. He won a pool table, bar and bar stools last summer after winning a water drinking contest staged by a local radio station. He became violently ill afterward and wound up in an emergency room.

“When I heard about the woman in Sacramento, it sent a chill over me,” Gross said Sunday. “This woman lost her life over a Wii. I could have lost mine over a pool table.”

Indeed.

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**Photo courtesy of William Strange.