Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue

X
News

Idiotic Splinter Cell PR Stunt Results In Police On The Scene

by Dan Ryckert on Apr 19, 2010 at 10:10 AM

Let me put out a hypothetical situation. You're sitting at a bar and enjoying a few beers when a man with bandaged hands shows up and points a gun at you. Which of the following thoughts are first to go through your mind?

A. "Oh my god, I don't want to die."

B. "Call the cops! He's got a gun!"

C. "Oh cool, this must be tied into that new Splinter Cell: Conviction video game, available now on Xbox 360!"

Apparently New Zealand-based marketing firm Monaco Corporation thought the natural reaction would be C, but the correct answer was unsurprisingly a mixture of A and B. According to the New Zealand Herald, a man with bandaged hands approached a bar called Degree on Friday night and started pointing a gun at patrons. Police arrived on the scene only to find that the gun was made of plastic and it was all a stunt to promote Splinter Cell.

"We do apologize, we shouldn't have had guns down there," said Duane Mutu, Monaco's marketing manager. "It was just marketing gone wrong."

Congrats, Monaco. You just made the dead goat stunt for God of War seem sane.