Free gas, soldier!

Say you're trying to market a video game that involves sneaking into Venezuela, attempting to overthrow an oil-mad dictator and killing lots of people. How do you get masses of Adderall-addled vid freaks to buy a copy?

Hire half a dozen bloodthirsty mercenaries to give away free gasoline during rush hour, of course.

Electronic Arts, known for its creative promotional events (think Madden-Palooza) is planning a doozy to promote the Pandemic Studios game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, set for release Aug. 31 and available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PCs.

Rather than a launch party, EA has elected to take over a gas station in West Los Angeles, decorate it to look like a military post and staff it with actors dressed as camouflaged guns-for-hire pumping gas for any and all who come through Friday morning, Aug. 29.

"We wanted to do something that focuses on the timeliness of oil and the cost of gas," said EA spokesman Devin Bennett. The video game giant spent months coordinating the event, called Petrol for the People, finally locating a Mobil station at Beverly and La Cienega boulevards that was willing, in a bloodless coup, so to speak, to be taken over for a few hours.

Some might suggest that Citgo, being a Venezuelan oil company, might more effectively stick tongues into cheeks, but, frankly, when free gasoline is at stake, who really cares? The goal, Bennett said, is to give away about 1,000 gallons in three hours. All cars and motorcycles are eligible, although big rig trucks are not. Happily, all grades of gas, from regular to premium, will be available. 

Of course, in this era of blazing gas prices, gas giveaways are a hot idea. For example, Kia Motors and the Golden State Warriors teamed up last month to give away 250 gallons of gas at a Valero station in Union City, and General Motors Corp. — always thinking ahead — sold E-85 ethanol at a Brentwood gas station for 85 cents a gallon in February.

Then again, none of them offered their free gas at gunpoint.

The free gas promotion will start at 6 a.m. Friday, Aug. 29, at 8480 Beverly Blvd., and the octane will stop flowing after about three hours, or when it runs out. Hoo-ha!

—Ken Bensinger

Photo: A Venezuelan soldier at a Caracas filling station.
Credit: Fernando Llano / Associated Press

Comments

[Tyler Beuneman]

All this does is demonstrate further our dependence on foreign oil. I may not have learned much in school in Seattle, but I did learn that we need to dig more and deeper off the coasts to add to our badly depleted oil reserves. This is clearly the ONLY topic worth talking about in this election and if Obama or Villaraigosa or Schwarzenegger or McCain or Biden or Lieberman don't realize that, they are are as idiotic as Pandemic Studios who thinks we'll buy their game simply because they are giving away more of Chavez's oil!

[Peder Sunde]

Tyler - I don't agree. Drilling for more oil will only increase our dependence on these big SUVs that are killing Americans like you and me. I remember growing up in the University District of Seattle, where everyone on the block had an SUV. Nice looking, but they guzzled gas like it was going out of style. Do you want to return to the days of $1 gas, where everyone can afford to drive a Ford Excursion? Let's think about this. The LA Times needs new leadership, clearly, because their web site is not up to snuff. Compare it to any professional newspaper and you'll see. Even searching for this timely and intelligent blog posting was no small task. If they want to improve profits, as Pandemic is "trying" to do, they'll focus more of their operational dollars on making this a respectable web destination, not on buyout costs and severance. Shame on you, Sam Zell. Shame on you!

[GMS]

I want the FN-FAL strapped to that guy's back. I wouldn't take Exxon gas even if it were free... ;)

[L1F3]

You all think Pandemic has something to do with this...
don't make me laugh. It's EA's marketing team (the publisher). Hilarious!

[Eric]

We need more refineries, not more drilling. We have, what, *two* refineries in the USA? What good is more oil when we have to wait to squeeze it through the eye of a needle?