Cheap gas is the new iPod

[jeffrey]

The gas promotions started big-time in early May, when Chrysler began offering gas cards to new customers through its "Let's Refuel America" sales program. Buy a new Ram pickup truck or Hemi-powered 300C sedan, and get a card that lets you pay only $2.99 a gallon at the pump. But the gimmick has spread far and wide, to grocery stores, radio stations, and pro sports teams. Even blood banks are using discounted gasoline as a come-on.

"People used to say that gas-related promotions made sense only if you were selling cars, but now gas has become so expensive that we're trading with it," says Kristi VandenBosch, president of Tequila U.S., a subsidiary of New York ad agency TBWA. "It's like Mad Max."

Gas promotions have been popular for years. It's hard to think of something that so many people can use, after all. Harris Teeter, a Matthews (N.C.)-based grocery chain, used a giveaway program back in 2003, when gas cost only $1.72 per gallon. That promotion, directed toward preferred customers, was so successful that the company began distributing gas cards again three years later. "We kept hearing about how high the price of gas was for our customers," said Jennifer Panetta, a spokesperson for Harris Teeter...

Cheap Gas Really Gets People Pumped