In the polling booth, votes are confidential. At Washington University in St. Louis, votes will be as plain as the icing on customers’ faces.
In a lighthearted experiment to see if cookie sales can predict the winner of the upcoming presidential election, WUSTL Dining Services is selling donkey- and elephant-shaped sugar cookies for $1.25 each.
The cookies — with elephants covered by red icing, and donkeys garbed in blue — will be sold Sept. 22 through Nov. 3, the day before the presidential election Nov. 4.
Each donkey or elephant cookie sold will be counted, and a tally will be posted at the end of each day on a sign in the Commons in the Danforth University Center. The winner will be announced the evening of Nov. 3.
For those wanting to make their vote count — or satisfy a sugar craving — cookies can be purchased at the Café in the Danforth University Center, Whispers in Olin Library, the Bear’s Den in the South 40, the Village Café and the Hilltop in Mallinckrodt Student Center.
The contest has become a debate tradition at WUSTL; the molds used to make the cookies are the same molds used four years ago when cookies were sold at the Hilltop.
And for the record, the elephant won in 2004, successfully predicting the election of President George W. Bush. The WUSTL cookie contest might not be the most scientific way to predict an election winner, but it might be the tastiest.
For media assistance or to arrange an interview through our free VYVX and ISDN lines, please contact:
Jessica Daues
Associate Record Editor/Senior News Writer
jessica_daues@wustl.edu
(314) 935-5293
Barbara Scheller
Marketing director
barbara.scheller@cafebonappetit.com
(314) 935-3795 office
(314) 761-3197 cell