(AP photo via "Gas Prices Expected to Peak in June")

Chrysler is following Hillary Clinton's lead by trying to curry favor through a price cut on gasoline. Neither are getting much of a bump, and the car maker in particular is getting the mentions in the press, but paired with various criticism for what looks like a publicity stunt.

The Big Three automaker is offering to lock in your gas purchases at $2.99 per gallon if you buy a new car, for the first three years of ownership. MotorTrend and others kick the tires on this deal and conclude it's nothing more than a modest incentive, while environmentalists point to Chrysler's already poor CAFE rating and note it's a better deal to find a car that gets about 3 mpg better in the first place.

Jalopnik makes the clever point that they "put all of these expenses on their books right away when it records the sale, which could be a PR boon for the automaker while it tries to buy time for the "New Day" that's coming. But most importantly, the amount of money that a consumer can save is maybe less than most expected."

This feels like a sort of reverse greenwash by betting on skyrocketing prices and still pushing the sale of inefficient vehicles.

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A co-worker recently chatted us up about his days in video game PR, and man, did it sound challenging. A slew of new games coming out all the time, and fewer and fewer writers that cover them.

Time to get creative.

One recent pitch we just heard about: Head down to the Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Center on Saturday from 2-6 PM to play Mario Kart Wii against actor and racing enthusiast Jason Priestley.

Yup, as in Jason Priestly from Beverly Hills 90210. We are sooooo there!

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The first thing we thought when we saw this story is "what is a couturier?" So we looked it up, and found out a couturier is "a person who designs, makes, and sells fashionable clothes for women."

Surely, McDonald's would need one of these people to design uniforms for their UK employees. And of course, it can't just be any couturier, but rather the couturier of Princess Diana.

David Fairhurst, chief people officer for northern Europe at McDonalds, told the Financial Times, "This is another step in McDonald's' makeover in the UK...A key component of that is to give employees a designer makeover...in a way that perhaps some of the cheapest airlines, for example, have missed."

PRNewser's take: cool stunt, but flipping burgers is flipping burgers, whether your dressed like the princess or not.

(Food Network's "Two Dudes")

PRNewser loves a fun stunt. If you're in Chicago tomorrow morning, check out the Food Network's attempt get generate publicity for their Two Dudes catering show.

The giant bratwurst in question is made of steel and won't be breaking any records. If one wanted to go for the Guiness and make an edible one, they would be facing some sausage-obsessed Brits (it looks like they break and re-break the record ever few years). The biggest on the books weighed in at 15.5 tons, and spanned 35 miles.

Here are the particulars from the Media Alert:

Where: John Hancock Plaza, 875 N. Michigan Ave.

When: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., March 7. The brat “drops” at noon.

What: A 24-foot, two-story grill. A 14-foot, 250-pound "sausage" made out of steel.

Who: Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, stars of “Two Dudes Catering.”

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Everyone's weighing in on Starbucks' little (big?) stunt of shutting down all of their stores for three hours Tuesday night. No caramel macchiatos? Help!

So, let's take a look at the results, which ranged from the slightly negative:

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Starbucks made a promise. Do you believe it?

Washington Post: Espresso Yourself: Starbucks Takes a Break

to mostly neutral:

WSJ: Starbucks Closes Stores To Retrain Baristas

NY Times: Starbucks Takes a 3-Hour Coffee Break

And of course, not to be left out in the news cycle, both Dunkin' Donuts and McDonalds attempted to lure in shut out Starbucks customers with promotions.

Meanwhile, coffee enthusiasts are calling Starbuck's bluff. Ken Nye, owner of Ninth Street Espresso in New York, told ABC News, "To say that 3.5 hours is a barista training is hard to swallow. Company training is another story," he said. "It probably makes sense when you have hundreds of thousands of employees. Probably makes sense that everybody learns about thirty rules of operation, but it's also probably got nothing to do with the art of making coffee."

We agree with Ken Wheaton in Advertising Age, except for the happier employers thing:

In my opinion, it's a brilliant marketing stunt (but mine isn't the only opinion). And if anyone takes offense at this being called a stunt rather than a concerted effort to retrain employees, tough. As someone in the office pointed out, Starbucks ain't exactly open 24 hours a day, so some post-closing or pre-opening training could have been in order. Do it over a span of a few weeks after close and take the time to focus on things that really matter. But hey, this not only gets the chain a load of free press, it probably makes for slightly happier employees.

Either way, most of us will likely be back for our daily caffeine injection, re-training or not, right?

UPDATE: Gawker received some emails from Starbucks employees.

Most PR pros get paid for their work. However, the NHL is offering fans the opportunity to pay them to do PR. At least, it seems like the work would be fun (meet the players!), and it's for a good cause.

From a press release:

The National Hockey League Fans' Association (NHLFA) online auction for two fans to bid on opportunities to be public relations assistants at the 2008 NHL All Star Game weekend in Atlanta held January 25-27 closes this Saturday evening at 9:00 p.m. ET.

The two highest bidding fans will get the opportunity to help the NHL's public relations department and assist the game's best players as they fulfill media availability. They will also spend some quality private time with the Stanley Cup.

With attendence shaky in some markets, the sport was helped by the publicity created around last week's outdoor game in Buffalo.

Read the full release here.

Every year media and PR folk get hit in the face with a swarm of top 10 lists. We've been covering some of them here at PRNewser, and this one proved to be somewhat interesting - FinemanPR's 13th Annual Top 10 PR Blunders.

What's almost more interesting than the actual list is FinemanPR CEO Michael Fineman's email to PRNewser about what an uproar the list causes. From irate PR people calling him, to actual death threats, Michael lays out what to expect when you start throwing stones at the big boys.

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