Yeah, I finally caught
their blog post about it. Seems strange to make it a 1-day only freebie, considering that the film comes out this weekend. Surely they could get a lot more mileage by keeping it going until the release. Unless they hope that they'll have a sales boost from curious movie-goers afterwards.
Ah well, I'm not in B&N's e-books marketing department and their reasoning tends to look about as clear as mud sometimes.
Mind you, if I were doing marketing for them, I'd have some people design a Nook hand-held carrying case with straps that doubled as a backpack that their stuffed mascot bear could wear.
Then strategically position those Nook-bearing Barnsies throughout the stores and at the checkouts and in prominent pictures on the website in order to upsell gift-giving customers into buying what amounts to an extra $50+ worth of needless accessory on the sheer cuteness of it all.
Maybe an extra $100 worth of Nook Colour, too if the Barnsies are carrying that and are presented as a 2-in-1 toy for the kiddies.