Positive PR from motoring chaos?

A lot of buzz (see below) at the moment about this stunt by Electronic Arts in Finsbury Park, London N4 (where I live).

As part of the EA stunt, the Last Stop Garage is giving drivers up to £40 of free petrol.

Local residents, and people trying to get through are not happy about it, but EA will be getting shed loads of free publicity for "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames" the rest of the day no doubt.


picture is from PA ( Dear PA - I'm happy to take this down if you'd prefer - I'm still waiting for creative commons pics to hit flickr, then I'll use that)

Not sure if I like the idea of my small part of London taken over for a PR stunt, but you've got to hand it to EA - they're certainly going to generate a lot of coverage - all for the cost of £20,000 of free petrol.

But whether of that coverage reaches or targets prospective purchasers of the game I'd be surprised. Seems to me coverage for coverage's sake - rather than coverage which will meet business objectives of selling more games.

Cynic, moi?

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