Shell Canada just announced that they will be giving Canadians more than 5,000 gift cards at Shell locations accross Canada starting Sunday, February 17, until Tuesday, February 19.

February 17 is “random acts of kindness day,” and Shell wants to celebrate by giving back to Canadians accross the country. Shell has stated that employees will be on the lookout for random acts of kindness, and reward those who do good deeds with free gas cards.

If you do something nice at a Shell station in Canada you could be rewarded with free gas! Go out into the world and be nice for a chance to win one of 5,000 gift cards, starting Sunday.

The people chosen by Shell employees will in fact get two gift cards: one for themselves, and to “pay it forward” to someone else. How cute!

“Fueling Kindness” started as a local grassroots initiative, though it has now grown to be Canada-wide. Companies are capitalising on this day, an advertising move dubbed “corporate activism,” much criticised by activists.

The idea is a good one, and free gas is a great motivation to do good things for each other. The cynic in me wonders how many people will do something nice just to get those two gift cards, and keep both for themselves…