On the hybrid front, the Lexus CT 200h has gotten a lot of attention recently — not so much for its appearance or performance as for the publicity stunts used to hawk it.

 

For reasons yet to be fully explained, Lexus and its ad agency chose to market the CT 200h with the tagline, “The Darker Side of Green“.* Then they put together a number of debates around the subject of the environment, pitting eco-scientists against climate change-deniers, with comedians like Sarah Silverman and Tracy Morgan serving as moderators.

There was even an interactive film meant to prove that environmentally friendly rides like the CT can also pack serious pep. Unfortunately, the film was mostly terrible, and putting out terrible things is perhaps not the best way to sell cars.

ANYWAY, the point of all this is that the Human Rights Campaign is raffling off one of these babies at its national dinner, to be held on October 9, 2010 at the Walter E Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Raffle tickets are $100, and they’re only selling 1,500 of them, so you start out with reasonably good odds — better than Powerball, at least. The fine print says that the winner still has to pay tax, title, and destination charges, but that’s to be expected, right?

The HRC is America’s largest gay-rights advocacy organization, but it’s also taken a good bit of heat for its slow-and-steady, backdoor approach to politics (har). In fact, just yesterday, there was an outcry against the HRC’s inability to help secure enough votes for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. So we wouldn’t be surprised to hear a few of you cracking jokes about HRC and the Dark Side. As long as you’re doing your part in the struggle for LGBT equality, have at it.

* A friend of Gaywheels just pointed out that “The Darker Side of Green” is awfully close to a recent Green Lantern Corps title. Which makes us wonder (a) if the coincidence is intentional and (b) if our friend is a secret Comic-Con attendee. Hmm.

[HRC]