This is the kind of thing where I wonder if a shaming award wouldn't help. Imagine an award, let's say every half year, with a top twenty (one for each of the three big platforms) of needlessly inefficient popular software programs. Ideally with these kinds of breakdowns to back up the claims.
* http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/mplayer-ktracing (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13704163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13624174)
* http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/rough-idling (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10254828)
* http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/browser-ktrace-browsing (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11830969)
* http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/accidentally-nonblocking (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11847529)
* http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/firefox-vs-rthreads (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11470042)