No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win. A purchase will not increase your chances of winning. Void where prohibited.

1. Sponsor

The contest is sponsored by Platypus Economics, 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 ("Sponsor", "we", "us"). Questions about the contest can be sent to sam+halloween@platypuseconomics.com.

2. Eligibility

The contest is open to individuals who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry and who live in the United States. Employees of Sponsor and members of their immediate families or households are not eligible to win. The contest is subject to all applicable laws and is void where prohibited or restricted.

3. Contest period

The contest begins on Thursday, October 15, 2026 and ends on Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (the "Contest Period"). Submissions and votes received after the end of the Contest Period will not be accepted. Sponsor's server clock is the official timekeeper.

4. How to enter

To enter, visit platypuseconomics.com/halloween during the Contest Period and submit:

• a photo (JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC, up to 15 MB) or a vertical video (MP4 or MOV, up to 30 seconds and 100 MB) of a Halloween costume (the "Entry");
• your first name, last name, city, a valid email address, and a title for your costume.

You may submit more than one Entry, and you must use the same email address for all of your Entries. Email addresses containing a "+" are not accepted. Entries are not complete until they are received by Sponsor's system and approved for display. Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, corrupted or misdirected submissions.

5. Entry requirements

By submitting an Entry, you confirm that:

• you created the Entry (or have all rights needed to submit it), and it does not infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other rights;
• you appear in the Entry, or you have the permission of every identifiable person who appears in it to submit it and for it to be displayed publicly;
• if anyone under 18 appears in the Entry, you are their parent or legal guardian or have their parent's or guardian's permission;
• the Entry does not contain nudity or sexual content, realistic graphic violence or gore, hate symbols or hateful content, harassment, illegal activity, private information (such as addresses or phone numbers), or advertising; and
• the Entry is otherwise appropriate for a general audience.

Entries are screened by an automated content check and may be held for manual review by Sponsor. Sponsor may, in its sole discretion, refuse, remove or disqualify any Entry at any time, including Entries it believes do not meet these rules.

6. Voting and how the winner is chosen

Approved Entries are displayed in a public gallery, where the public may vote. To vote, you must provide a valid email address.

• One vote per Entry per email address. You may vote for as many different Entries as you like, but only once for each. A vote cannot be withdrawn once cast. Further votes for the same Entry from the same email address are recorded but not counted.
• Votes from email addresses containing a "+" are recorded but not counted.
• Sponsor records every vote, along with the time it was cast, to verify results. Sponsor may disqualify votes, or Entries that benefit from votes, that it believes were obtained through fraud, automated means, multiple or fake email addresses, vote buying or exchange, or any other abuse.

After the Contest Period ends, the Platypus Economics team will choose the potential winner from all eligible Entries on Monday, November 2, 2026. The team may take public votes into account, but the Entry with the most votes is not guaranteed to win. Sponsor's decisions are final.

7. Prize

One (1) winner will receive a Gus Platypus pillow, and their Entry will be featured on Platypus Economics. Approximate retail value: $20. Limit one prize per person, regardless of the number of Entries. The prize is not transferable, and no substitution or cash equivalent is allowed, except that Sponsor may substitute a prize of equal or greater value. The winner is responsible for all applicable taxes. Sponsor may request a completed tax form (such as an IRS Form W-9) and will issue an IRS Form 1099 if required by law.

8. Winner notification

The potential winner will be contacted at the email address submitted with the winning Entry within 7 days after the Contest Period ends. The potential winner must respond within 7 days and may be required to sign a declaration of eligibility and a liability and publicity release (where lawful). If the potential winner does not respond in time, cannot be verified as eligible, or does not comply with these rules, the prize may be forfeited and awarded to an alternate Entry chosen by the Platypus Economics team.

9. License to use your Entry

You keep ownership of your Entry. By submitting it, you grant Sponsor a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, reproduce, display, and share the Entry, along with your costume title, first name, last initial and city, in connection with the contest and on Sponsor's websites and social media channels for 12 months. Sponsor may resize, compress or crop your Entry for display. You can ask us to remove your Entry from public display at any time by emailing sam+halloween@platypuseconomics.com; removal may make you ineligible to win.

10. Publicity

Except where prohibited by law, the winner agrees that Sponsor may announce their first name, last initial, city and winning Entry in connection with the contest, without additional compensation.

11. General conditions

Sponsor may cancel, suspend or modify the contest, or these rules, if fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond Sponsor's reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the contest. Any attempt to undermine the legitimate operation of the contest may be a violation of law, and Sponsor reserves the right to seek remedies to the fullest extent permitted by law.

12. Release and limitation of liability

By participating, you agree to release and hold harmless Sponsor and its affiliates, employees and agents from any claims, losses or damages arising from your participation in the contest or the acceptance or use of any prize, to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor is not responsible for technical errors, interrupted or unavailable network connections, or errors in the collection of entries or votes.

13. Disputes and governing law

These rules are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Massachusetts.

14. Winner announcement

The winner will be announced on Sponsor's social media channels after verification. To request the winner's first name, last initial and city, email sam+halloween@platypuseconomics.com within 60 days after the Contest Period ends.

15. Social media

The contest is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X or any other platform where it may be promoted.

Privacy Notice

This notice explains what information we collect for the costume contest and how we use it.

What we collect

• When you submit a costume: your first name, last name, city, email address, costume title, and the photo or video you upload.
• When you vote: your email address, which Entry you voted for, and when.
• Technical information: such as IP address and browser type, used to prevent fraud and keep the site secure. When you submit or first vote, a bot check run by Cloudflare (Turnstile) evaluates your browser, and we set a security cookie that remembers you passed it for 12 hours.

What's shown publicly

Your Entry, costume title, first name, last initial and city are shown in the public gallery. Your email address and full last name are never shown publicly. Votes are shown only as totals.

Our license to use your photo or video

You keep ownership of the photo or video you submit. By submitting it, you grant Sponsor a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, copy, display, resize, compress, crop and share your Entry, together with your costume title, first name, last initial and city, in connection with the contest and on Sponsor's websites, newsletters and social media channels, for 12 months. "Non-exclusive" means you remain free to use your photo or video however you like, including licensing it to others. You confirm you have the right to grant this license, including permission from everyone who appears in the Entry. You can ask us to stop using your Entry at any time by emailing sam+halloween@platypuseconomics.com; we will remove it from the gallery and stop new uses, though copies already shared on social media may remain. See also section 9 of the Official Rules.

How we use your information

• To run the contest, display Entries, and count and verify votes.
• To screen uploads for inappropriate content. Uploads are checked automatically using an AI service provider (Anthropic), and some are reviewed manually by Sponsor.
• To prevent fraud, duplicate voting and abuse.
• To contact the winner, and to contact entrants about their Entry if needed.

We will not add you to a mailing list or send you marketing emails because you entered or voted.

Who we share it with

We don't sell or rent your personal information. We share it only with service providers that help us run the contest, namely our hosting provider (Render), our content-moderation provider (Anthropic) and our bot-protection provider (Cloudflare), and only for that purpose. We may also disclose information if required by law.

How long we keep it

We delete all contest records, including email addresses, full names, vote records and uploads, within 12 months after the winner is announced, except where we need to keep records to meet legal or tax obligations. Approved Entries may stay on display for the license period described in the Official Rules, unless you ask us to remove them sooner.

Your choices

You can ask us to show you, correct, or delete the information we hold about you, or to remove your Entry from the gallery, by emailing sam+halloween@platypuseconomics.com. Depending on where you live, you may have additional privacy rights under local law, and we will honor them.

Children

The contest is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted information, contact us and we will delete it.

Security

We use reasonable measures to protect the information we collect, but no system is completely secure.

Changes and contact

We may update this notice, and will change the "last updated" date when we do. Questions: sam+halloween@platypuseconomics.com, Platypus Economics, 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104.