Free Food

So I was bored, wandering around campus the other day before I had to catch the train, and I came across a discarded newspaper. On the front was a lot of little pictures of pancakes and bacon, 52 to be exact (it was stated, I wasn't bored enough to count). The article sandwiched between the little pictures was all about companies are using free food or something equivalent to a giveaway to lure in constant customer support. From the gist of the article, it's working perfectly.

This got me thinking. I might not be a typical poor college student (I have a part time job and I live at my parents house where's there plenty of free food to go around), but even I can appreciate the allure of free stuff. I can only imagine that it's even more appealing to those who live on campus or on their own or are having a hard time economically. Cheap, free things are getting harder and harder to come by, so is this a form of exploitation of the times or just a new effective advertising technique?

I'm pretty sure it's both - and they're working fantastically.