March 18, 2008
Daily News

Get Free Stuff

By Asa Aarons

It's no secret that consumers like getting something for nothing.

Advertisers, manufacturers and retailers have taken notice. As Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, explains, "Because free is what you want, free, increasingly, is what you're going to get."

In some cases, advertisers offer free products and services in an effort to lure new customers. Kraft Foods, for instance, offered free cream cheese and bagels to 500,000 passengers on selected JetBlue flights as part of its "Breakfast From Heaven" ad campaign.

At other times, manufacturers or companies provide products or services free of charge to consumers willing to listen to or view ads from sponsors. Here's just a sampling of some of the products and services you can try without spending a cent:

Monterey , Calif. -based Language Line Services ( www.languageline.com ), in partnership with AT&T, just expanded its free, phone-based interpreter service from California to six East Coast cities: New York; Baltimore ; Boston ; Charlotte, N.C.; Philadelphia, and Washington. The service, accessed by calling (888) 855-0811, connects limited-English speakers to interpreters who can help them with banking, utilities and other essential services. Businesses pay about $15 a call, but there's no cost to consumers.

Students in 29 states at 200 of the largest college campuses in the U.S. get free notepaper on their way to class from FreeHand Advertising. Each page is branded with the type of horizontal ad typically displayed on Web sites.

A few companies are offering advertiser- or company-supported credit reports and credit scores. www.Credit.com earns fees from targeted offers from advertisers; Quizzle ( www.quizzle.com ) is supported by Quicken Loans. Yet another ad-supported site, Credit Karma ( www.creditkarma.com ), is under development.

Indiana -based Mosh Mobile is beta-testing an ad-supported mobile phone service. Users earn service credit by accepting and responding to up to seven daily messages from sponsors. The messages may include surveys, videos, downloadable games and store coupons.

Asa Aarons is an Emmy Award-winning consumer reporter, public speaker and photojournalist. His special Daily News column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

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