- Saturday, 28 November 2009
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me - than a frontal lobotomy"
EA Mercenaries publicity stunt backfires
GAMING COMPANIES HAVE done many a ridiculous stunt to promote their latest invention – but none as stupid as giving away free petrol.
Electronic Arts has taken over Last Stop garage in Finsbury Park, London this morning in order to promote its new shooter Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
This is a great idea for all those wanting free petrol - and who doesn't given what it costs these days - but it looks like the games success will be what's in flames.
The problem is this – Electronic Arts is giving away £20,000 worth of petrol, as well as spending money on decorating the petrol station to look like the game, but are not asking customers to buy the game in return – so there's no guarantee they will ever buy it.
Customers however are having a whale-of-a-time, at last check over 150 drivers had already taken advantage of the offer to put up to £40 worth of petrol in their car – for free.
Prince Davis, 37, who queued for petrol this morning said, "This is a genius idea, whoever thought of this should be promoted," – as you would say Prince.
Not everyone was happy though, as this offer brought in many cars which clogged up the road outside and of course there are always the impatient ones.
However, one local woman complained, "This area is usually very quiet but look at it now, there's cars queuing everywhere. It's just creating unnecessary problems."
Louise Marchant, of Electronic Arts explained why they chose a petrol station, "(the game is) set in Venezuela, you play a mercenary and fuel is used as a currency."
So, yes this promotion fits in with the game, but is a petrol station really the best place to find the target audience for this game – probably not.
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is out today and is available on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and PC. µ
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I would just like to point out that YOU are commenting on this stunt and you also pointed out that Merc 2 is available from today. I did not previously know this.

I don't see you commenting on the Merc 2 release in any other article, so I assume that The Inq wouldn't otherwise have mentioned its release. 

So 20,000 + (x amount for signage) grand well spent then?
The promotion is excellent.

All morning on the radio i have heard about it, its now on international press sites as well. Not bad for 20k of petrol!!!
I don't know. Giving away free gas sounds like a good way to draw attention to me. I think the merc 2 marketing team has done an excellent job so far. The tv ads are very catchy and this stunt is sure to produce a lot of buzz.
Lets see, this is the third site I've read about this on... I'd say their publicity stunt worked better than they probably hoped. Fuel is a huge topic for everyone right now. "Huh, whaaa,... EA is giving it away?!?!?!" Even better! 

So are you saying the stunt backfired because a few drivers waiting in line got angry along with the people that live close to the station? It soon will pass...giving away 20K in fuel will be finished within the day. Or are you saying it backfired because only people not old enough to drive/buy fuel play video games?

What's with all the negativity in the recent articles? I think you all need to get laid.
A large company did this in California a few years ago. They had a ton of backed up traffic but that was when oil had peaked in price that year. 

They got headline news attention on TV, newspapers etc. So they spent about $100,000 in fuel and a bit more on expenses. Sure beats getting the same attention on TV.
this kind of free publicity for under a million.
Everybody has been reporting it!

Sheer genius!
Right, off to Walmart to get a copy, (that's ASDA to you Englanders)
You mean getting on just about every major news channel and website for 20k.
The game is glicted up to **** the 1st game Playground of Destruction is miles better in no.2 they've taken out everything that made Mercs a good franchise.

The A.I in the 2nd is awful and just pure dump Eurogamer & Gamespot have rated it a 5/10. GS even go on to say Mercs 1 is worth playing again and theis is an unfinished title that's had 2 yrs of delays to tweak the bugs that where found back then. And they still managed to not fix them the EA curse is true by out a companny on the sequal and it ends up totally *******.
Good marketing but not even that will save this game, the game looks like crap.

This game not worth $50-60, better off waiting till you see it in the bargain bin.
In economics there is no such thing as a free lunch- but this is as close as it gets!
It wouldn't exactly be 'free' petrol if one had to buy a video game, would it?

I'd rather see a story about this than people flocking to a station after hearing they'll get free petrol, and going out of their way to find they have to buy something.
Its such a catchy advertisement, your paper.
I have to hand it to them. They could of made new commercials but they did this too. Bravo EA. Now If they would stop making commercials and start doing this, then we would be much happier consumers.
People who protest things tend to promote the very thing they are protesting. For example: In 1989 the popularity the TV show Married With Children sky-rocketed when it was boldly protested by a woman in Michigan. I expect EA should thank the angry people