Microsoft Pumps Your Gas

I've heard Windows Vista called a gas guzzler, which pumps a little irony into Microsoft's newest contest.

Today, Microsoft Small Business formerly announced a marketing campaign/contest to give away 5,000 gallons of gasoline. With gas prices near five bucks in some places (like Southern California), Microsoft is encouraging businesses to stay at work and collaborate or conference online.

I initially resisted blogging the gas giveaway, which I read about early this morning in a post on the Microsoft SMB Community blog. Eric Ligman, senior manager for Microsoft Small Business Community Engagement, wrote:

"We want to make sure small businesses have the information they need to make smart decisions about cutting costs and becoming more efficient. As a first step in this effort, we are offering 5 money-saving ideas and the opportunity to win 5,000 gallons of gas at BumptheSlump.com. So, check it out, enter to win and remember to pass along the good news. Your customers will definitely love you for pointing them to the gas giveaway and may even want to tap into your small business technical expertise about some of the money-saving ideas."

Ad agency Bradley and Montgomery created the advertising campaign, which apparently is just a first effort. Coming in July: A SMB social networking site, according to PR e-mail sent this afternoon. What? Facebook or Windows Live Spaces aren't social networking enough?

Oh, I almost forgot: The contest can be found at bumptheslump.com. I totally barfed my coffee when seeing link "Stack the deck. Send this to all your coworkers." Yeah, right. Like I want to spam everybody.

By the way, the contest's fine print indicates it's not really gas but "Shell prepaid gas cards." Also: "Open only to small businesses legally domiciled in the 50 United States (includes D of C) that have between 2 and 100 employees. Game ends July 18, 2008."

What I don't get: The rules say the contest started on June 19. OK, so why is Microsoft publicizing this thing today? I love this: The gift cards are $250 each, for a 5,000 gallon total with an "approximate Retail Value (ARV) US $20,350.00 based on AAA US national average of $4.07." Say, what? Average gas price here in San Diego today is $4.59. But Microsoft's not getting off easy. U.S. government stats put the national gas price average at $4.09 today.

As for gas guzzling Vista, I referred to its heftier hardware requirements as compared to Windows XP.