EA gives away free fuel in London. Causes chaos.

BBC News wrote:

A stunt in which £20,000 of petrol was given away in north London to promote a computer game has been criticised as "irresponsible and dangerous".

Traffic was gridlocked outside the Last Stop garage in Finsbury Park as drivers queued for £40-worth of free fuel each.

The move was to promote the game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, said "Whilst a lucky few might have got free petrol, hundreds of residents have faced misery".

The Liberal Democrat said: "Trying to recreate Venezuelan-style fuel riots on the streets of London is completely irresponsible and downright dangerous.

"Hundreds of local residents have faced misery on their daily journeys this morning.

"They deserve an apology for being the victims of such an ill-thought out media stunt."

Queuing cars

The promotion by Electronic Arts began at 0630 BST and within an hour more than 150 customers had taken advantage of the offer.

Security staff brought in to control the traffic and deal with rowdy customers had to calm down one resident who waited 10 minutes to get out of his driveway.

Another angry resident who lives near the garage, but did not want to be named, said the stunt was "totally irresponsible".

She said: "What an extraordinary thing to do. I can't believe they've been allowed to do it.

"This area is usually very quiet but look at it now, there's cars queuing everywhere. It's just creating unnecessary problems."

A queue of about 40 cars snaked its way from the petrol station as more and more customers arrived for their free fuel.

Car horns sounded repeatedly as drivers on the other side of the road got snarled up in the congestion.

'Genius idea'

But customers filling up for nothing were very happy.

Prince Davis, 37, who queued patiently for a quarter of an hour for free petrol, said: "This is a genius idea, whoever thought of this should be promoted.

"I'll definitely be buying the game, you're never too old to play computer games."

Louise Marchant, from Electronic Arts, said the scenes of queuing mimicked aspects of the game.

She explained: "It's set in Venezuela, you play a mercenary and fuel is used as a currency."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7599639.stm

Not one of EA's best decisions, I don't think. Not the type of thing you want to put up with on the way to work/school. They could have easily started this promotion later.

But...Britons are meant to be awesome at queuing...

:cry:

Awesome, who ever came up with the idea certainly does deserve a promotion because it has clearly worked.

hot Damn you KK, I posted the exact same story in the Mercenaries2 topic at 12:25. 1minute after you posted this.
:evil:

I say they should chisel some grave stones Shadowman style!

A fuel-ish move by EA.

Mockmaster wrote:A fuel-ish move by EA.

Your right! What is their collective I Queue anyway?

It only took 5 posts...

I doubt any of those people will buy the game.

If they were going to recreate Venezuela they should heva gone a step further and executed every tenth person. I still reckon that many Londoners would take odd of 10 to 1 for
£40 worth of free petrol.

Stu wrote:I doubt any of those people will buy the game.

That's not the point. The news coverage will result in many more sales than the stunt on its own ever could.

Tremendous. Not for the people going to work of course.

Mockmaster wrote:A fuel-ish move by EA.

Brilliant idea. It's made the news, which is just more marketing for the game.

They did this in America aswell, how did that one go?

DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINAGE

samoza wrote:I say they should chisel some grave stones Shadowman style!

EA = The New Acclaim.

I will change my username to 'Boom Bloxx' for a free copy of the game.

Oil rly?

The PR team really should have thought this through. I petrol thinking a bit foolish right now.

There gas to be a way to stop publicity stunts like this.

EA gives away free fuel in London. Causes chaos.

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