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Mercenaries 2 – Free Fuel, Costly Traffic Jams
Another brilliant publicity stunt by EA centered on Mercenaries 2. The game’s premise was about traveling to Venezuela to take back its oil supply. So the publisher decided that a good tie-in stunt would be to distribute £20,000 worth of free fuel at a London petrol station. The publisher severely underestimated the enthusiasm for free gas though – numerous vehicles lined up, causing traffic jams and gridlocks. Eventually the police got involved and EA had to cancel the stunt just a few hours later due to the carnage happening. Brilliant meta-commentary on society or a terrible stunt for an underrated forgotten title? We’ll let you decide.
