GENERAL MOTORS INTRODUCES NEW INSTANT-WIN AIRBAGS
DETROIT--With sales sluggish due to the ongoing strike, and its share of the domestic
market down 11 percent since 1993, General Motors unveiled a new instant-win airbag
contest Monday.
The new airbags, which award fabulous prizes upon violent, high-speed impact with another
car or stationary object, will come standard in all of the company's 1999 cars.
"Auto accidents have never been so exciting," said GM vice-president of
marketing Roger Jenkins, who expects the contest to boost 1998 sales significantly.
"When you play the new GM Instant Win Airbag Game, your next fatal collision could
mean a trip for two to the next Super Bowl, or a year's worth of free Mobil
gasoline."
Though it does not officially begin until Jan. 1, 1999, the airbag promotion is already
being tested in select cities, with feedback
overwhelmingly positive.
"As soon as my car started to skid out of control, I thought to myself, 'Oh, boy,
this could be it--I could be a big winner!'" said
Cincinnati's Martin Frelks, who lost his wife but won $50 Sunday when the Buick LeSabre
they were driving hit an oil slick at 60 mph and slammed into an oncoming truck.
"When the car stopped rolling down the embankment, I knew Ellen was dead, but all I
could think about was getting the blood and glass out of my eyes so I could read that
airbag!"
"It's really addictive," said Sacramento, CA, resident Marjorie Kamp, speaking
from her hospital bed, where she is listed in critical condition with severe brain
hemorrhaging and a punctured right lung. "I've already crashed four cars trying to
win those Super Bowl tickets, but I still haven't won. I swear, I'm going to win those
tickets--even if it kills me!"
Kamp said that as soon as she is well enough, she plans to buy a new Pontiac Bonneville
and drive it into a tree.
GM officials are not surprised the airbag contest has been so well received. "In the
past, nobody really liked car wrecks, and that's understandable. After all, they're scary
and dangerous and, sometimes, even fatal," GM CEO Paul Offerman said. "But now,
when you drive a new GM car or truck, your next serious crash could mean serious cash. Who
wouldn't like that?"
Offerman added that in the event a motorist wins a prize but is killed, that prize will be
awarded to the next of kin.
According to GM's official contest rules, odds of winning the grand prize, a brand-new
1999 Cutlass Supreme, are 1 in 43,000,000. Statistical experts, however, say the real
chances of winning are significantly worse. "If you factor in the odds of getting in
a serious car accident in the first place--approximately 1 in 720,000--the actual odds of
winning a prize each time you step in your car are more like 1 in 31 trillion."
Further, even if one is in an accident, there is no guarantee the airbag will inflate.
"I was recently broadsided by a drunk driver in my new Chevy Cavalier," said
Erie, PA, resident Jerry Polaner. "My car was totaled, and because it was the side of
my car that got hit, my airbag didn't even inflate. But what really gets me is the fact
that the drunk driver, who rammed my side with the front of his 1998 Buick Regal, won a
$100 Office Depot gift certificate. That's just wrong!"
Contributed by Pam Schindler