Forget $4 gas. Gas (or guns, but we'll come back to that) is free just about everywhere right now.
"Book three nights of hotel accommodations through Expedia and get a $50 gas card," the Los Angeles Times tells us.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports, "On Friday, the state Lottery will put 10 gallons of gas in your car for free -- but only after you buy a $10 Mega Millions quick pick ticket."
Washington, D.C.'s WTOP News reports, "The long weekend started with a bang Thursday morning for several hundred motorists who received free gas as part of a national promotion. At 25 locations across the country, including a gas station in Southeast D.C. and in Ashburn, Va., the first 200 cars received a $40 pre-paid gas card." That promotion was "sponsored by Verizon Yellow Pages and Superpages.com."
The Orlando Sentinel adds, "Across Central Florida, gas giveaways are popping up at car dealerships trying to unload gas-guzzlers, furniture and sporting goods stores looking to boost sales -- even at blood banks. Bill Heard Chevrolet in Sanford is offering free gas for a year with the purchase of a new vehicle. Buyers of certain golf clubs can get a gas card worth up to $100 at Golfsmith Golf & Tennis shops. And donating a pint of blood will now earn you a $10 gas card -- with a chance to win $100."
Even the automakers have gotten into the act, with Chrysler offering an incentive designed to fix the price of gas at $2.99 a gallon for three years for new car buyers.
What's going on?
New Jersey's Trenton Times says "Madison Avenue is finding a way to create opportunity out of a crisis." Rosemary Monaco, President of the marketing agency Group M, told the Times, "Corporations are tapping into the anger consumers feel over paying higher prices to drive. People feel it isn't fair, and here comes a company that says, 'We're going to fix it for you and make you feel good about something that makes you feel bad.'"
"It's brilliant," Dennis Hoffman, professor of economics at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, told the Christian Science Monitor. "The marketing people have no recourse: They have to play into this."
The offers are getting very unusual. "Earlier this month, Bishop Daniel Robertson Jr. of the Mt. Gilead Full Gospel International Ministries decided to give away $10,000 in gasoline and gas cards." They gave away many of the cards in the parking lot of a local grocery store. Tony Whittingham, an elder at the church, told the Monitor that when people asked for the cards, "we talked to them about what Christ can do in your life: It was soft evangelism."
Florida CBS affiliate KMBC reports, "Max Motors in Butler is offering anyone who buys a car the choice of $250 in gas or a free semi-automatic handgun. … So far, the handgun is a more popular choice." They don't just hand you the gun. Dealership owner Walter Moore says, "The dealership will hand the customer a certificate to get the gun, but you must pass a background check. The local police chief said he is OK with the promotion as long as the weapons aren't handed out at the dealership.
In this economic climate, we can't be the only ones thinking that we'd take the gun…and then all the free gas we wanted…
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