Would You Name Your Kid Quinoa for $10,000?
Would you name your kid Quinoa? How about in exchange for $10,000 worth of bar food and booze?
BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, a casual-restaurant chain with 163 restaurants in 20 states, has announced that it will award $10,000 in BJ’s gift cards to the first parents in the United States to name their child after the healthy high-protein grain, which it is featuring in two new dishes on its light-fare menu: Roasted Chicken with Spinach Quinoa Bowl and Roasted Salmon Quinoa Bowl.
The baby must be born or adopted between Tuesday, June 22, 2015, and, appropriately enough, Labor Day, with parents submitting the birth certificate or adoption papers as proof by October 21. (Official rules can be found here.) Only one family will win — the one who names their kid Quinoa first. And when BJ’s says first, it means first. The chain said that, despite the popularity of names inspired by other healthy foods, like Apple, Brie and Kale, it couldn’t find a single person in America named Quinoa.
BJ’s executive VP and chief marketing officer, Kevin Mayer, said in a release that the company “wanted to do something big, maybe even a little crazy” to promote its new quinoa bowls, but also hoped the contest would have a bigger impact.
"At the end of the day, we think Quinoa could be a great baby name," he said. "And who knows? Maybe it will start a trend."
Girl name? Boy name? Nicknamed Kiki or Noa? That’s for the parents to decide, I guess. But even people who are not expecting the imminent arrival of an infant can get in on the discount action: Anyone who changes the first name on his or her Twitter account to “Quinoa” can collect a coupon worth $10 off $35. It’s not $10,000 worth of grub, but it is something.
