LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Petroleum Association & Michigan Association of Convenience Stores (MPA/MACS) is launching an advertising campaign to educate the public on issues facing Michigan gas station owners and petroleum fuel distributors.
The campaign, entitled Neighbors Serving Neighbors, will consist of TV and radio spots that will air statewide. The ads feature actual station owners discussing the history and family heritage of their businesses, and will communicate that most stations are not owned by major oil companies but are locally [image-nocss] owned and operated family run businesses that provide jobs for local people.
It is important for the public to realize that our members, hardworking gas station owners from around the state, are not big oil, said Mark Griffin, MPA/MACS president. They sell brand name gasoline just like they sell brand name candy or pop. Gas station owners, who have less control over the price at the pump than people may think, are as frustrated as their customers with the high cost of gas. Gas station owners are our neighbors, families that live and work in our communities.
MPA/MACS has 550 member companies with more than 1,500 retail locations. MPA/MACS members employ more than 15,000 people statewide in all of Michigan's 83 counties.
The group also works on behalf of its members in the legislature with the introduction of bills such as the Michigan Petroleum Marketing Stabilization Act. This legislation, it said, would stop predatory pricing in gasoline retailing, stop wild fuel price fluctuations, and ensure free and fair competition between small, locally owned gas stations and huge out-of-state owned retailerscompetition, which in the long run, provides greater customer choice and lower fuel costs; 26 other states have adopted similar legislation.
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