Maximum hype, minimal costs, and free Coke for us

What do the Mir spacecraft, Axl Rose, and NASCAR have in common?

They're all part of publicity stunts that could bring you some free junk food - and help companies develop relationships with you, Mr. or Ms. Potential Customer.

This weekend, if any of Coca-Cola's 13 sponsored drivers win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, everyone in America can receive a free 20-ounce bottle of Coke Zero by downloading a coupon from the company's website.

A few months ago, Dr Pepper promised a free soda to everyone in America if Axl Rose puts out a new Guns N' Roses album in 2008.

And Taco Bell has tried the stunt twice, most recently during the 2007 World Series, when it offered a free taco to - you guessed it, everyone in America - the first time someone stole a base. In 2001, it said everyone in the country would get a free taco if Russia's Mir spacecraft landed on a 40-foot-square 40 Taco Bell banner floating in the South Pacific. (It didn't - no tacos for us!)

This type of marketing is a boon for the companies because they receive buzz from publicity and traffic to their websites, Sobotka said.

That's even though the chance of any of these things happening is pretty small. After all, Rose has supposedly been working on the new Guns N' Roses album for 14 years. And the chances of a spacecraft landing on a 40-by-40-foot logo in the middle of an ocean that measures thousands of miles across are - well, you do the math.

Coke says its promotion is different. There are 43 cars in the Coke Zero 400 race that started yesterday at the Daytona International Speedway, and Coca-Cola has 13 drivers in the race, six of whom hold spots in the top 12 of the Sprint Cup Series' point standings. After all, spokeswoman Susan Stribling said, Coke really wants to Coke Zero to reach customers, in whatever way it can.

"When people taste it," she said, "they actually really like the brand."