Game maker Zynga is in trouble with the San Francisco City Attorney over its latest marketing campaign for “Mafia Wars.”
The company glued fake money to the sidewalks of San Francisco. On this fake money they printed ads for “Mafia Wars: Las Vegas.”
In a letter, Deputy City Attorney Alex Tse asserts that “documented acts of sidewalk vandalism” have been committed to advertise the new Mafia Wars game.
“The City Attorney takes violations such as these very seriously, and intends to pursue every available cause of action aggressively against Zynga for these illegal marketing tactics,” Tse writes.
Tse goes on to ask that Zynga “provide the City full information regarding the nature and extent of the marketing campaign affecting the public way in the City, identify all parties other than Zynga responsible for this campaign, and provide the City with a proposal to fully resolve the issue.”
In the meantime, officials at the social-gaming company must be keeping their fingers crossed that another big marketing stunt for the new version of Mafia Wars — the company plans to blow up a truck in the Nevada desert this evening with the help of rapper Snoop Dogg — comes off a little more smoothly.
Illegal marketing practices, and the City Attorney is upset… Hellooooo! “Mafia Wars” sort implies the nefarious.
Yesh, lets focus on this type of crap. Order them to clean it up an get on with it.