• October 8, 2009

Ford has given a Fusion Hybrid car to comedian Mark Malkoff, who has begun a 28-day tour to see how many city mayors east of the Mississippi he can convince to give him keys to their cities.

"Mark came to us with the idea, and we loved it," said Jeffrey Eggen, manager, Ford Car Experiential Marketing, in a statement.

Malkoff, who evidently got some notoriety for living and sleeping in an Ikea store for a week while his apartment was being fumigated, will chronicle his Fusion Hybrid exploits with videos, photos and blogs at Markmalkoff.com/keystothecity/. He will provide updates on social networking sites such as Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.

On Monday Malkoff arrived in Harrisburg, Pa., where the mayor made him follow mounted police around town and clean up after the horses in order to get the key. In Fairfax, Va., he says he had to descend into the city's fountain, collect all of the coins and donate them to charity.

Malkoff says he hopes to earn 100 keys before his journey with the Ford Fusion Hybrid ends on Nov. 1.--Karl Greenberg