Legal Niches

Splinter Cell Marketing Goes Bad

By pete_gallagher

A promotion for the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction in New Zealand, complete with an armed 'Sam Fisher,' went awry, causing members of the public to dive for cover after someone screamed 'He's got a gun!'

According to the New Zealand Herald, a man dressed as Fisher, with bandages wrapped around his hands and a fake gun, pointed his weapon at bar goers in Auckland's Viaduct Basin. Someone thought the weapon was real and yelled a warning, causing the people in the bar to take cover. Police were called, and even though they thought the gun was real, they managed to diffuse the situation without hurting anyone.

Regional distributor Monaco Corporation had hired an unnamed marketing agency to setup the stunt and claimed to know nothing about a gun being involved.

Monaco Marketing Manager Duane Mutu apologized for the stunt, saying, 'This was by no means an attempt to get cops down there and get this sort of exposure. It was just marketing gone wrong."

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Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on April 20, 2010 (boomark / email).