Pop goes the promotion: Crowd makes mad scramble for free airline coupons

A low-cost airline's attempt to celebrate its fifth anniversary turned into a free-for-all for onlookers trying to grab $50 coupons for the Budapest airline.

Before balloons with coupons worth 10,000 Forints, or $49.45, could be released into the air, some onlookers noticed the coupons attached to each balloon and started popping and grabbing them, according to a Reuters story.

The balloons were to be released from a giant net in the center of Budapest as a way for Wizz Air to celebrate its anniversary.

"Someone popped one of the balloons, hoping to get the gift coupon that was attached to it," said Wizz Air communications director Natasa Kazmer. "As if on cue, the entire crowd attacked the net."

Some people scrambled after balloons, chasing as many coupons as they could. One young woman kneeled over a grill in the gutter to grab coupons out of the rainwater underneath.

"The idea was that the balloons would spread far and wide, so we did not place a limit on how many vouchers they could use for a single purchase," Kazmer said.

The crowd and the vouchers were mostly gone before the airline, the largest in Eastern Europe, could outline its long-term vision at a press conference.