Mercenaries 2 Gas Giveaway Causes "Traffic Chaos" in London

[retro_killa]

As far as big PR stunts for games go, the free gas giveaway that Electronic Arts set up at a Los Angeles gas station for Mercenaries 2 was a pretty awesome one. Or at least we thought so. According to a story from Telegraph (via GamePolitics), a similar £20,000 gas giveaway in Finsbury Park, north London resulted in "traffic chaos" and a lot of irked individuals.

Apparently the area around this London station got so crammed full of people trying to get free gas that the police were brought in. The giveaway began at 6:30 a.m. and ran until 11:00 a.m. before the decision was made to shut it down. Only £11,000 of "petrol" ended up being offloaded onto lucky consumers. Video of the wildly backed-up traffic is also available from a report by the BBC.

In addition to the giveaway, the entire area around the station had been transformed into a military bunker to promote the game. Though resident Norman Tidiman said he was "surprised there hasn't been an accident" at the already extremely busy junction, mother Donna Lashley called the stunt "brilliant." She added, "I think it's a great idea -- I'll be telling my sons about the game."

Liberal democrat MP Lynne Featherstone was not so enthusiastic. She commented, "Whilst a lucky few might have got some free petrol, 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." Of course, with gas costs as high as they are, can you blame people for rushing out with such zeal to get fuel for free? Or EA for knowing that they would and knowing it would reflect well on their game?

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http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169782

[willplayer]

that's incredibly awesome lol

[Generalidea]

I need to see some pictures of this crisis.