4 ms·

Zynga in Hot Water with San Francisco City Attorney Over 'Mafia Wars' Marketing

16 points by jaybol 16y ago

staunch 16y ago
No such thing as bad press?
- hugh3 16y ago
  There's such a thing as overly-expensive press. I hope that there's a sufficiently large fine levied against Zynga for this ad campaign to discourage others from following suit. There's enough advertising in the world already. I don't want it showing up illegally on walls and pavement as well.
arram 16y ago
I've seen this on my street - I wondered how they got away with it. Guess they didn't.
sabj 16y ago
I thought these were terrible - just grafitti / vandalism. Acting macho on some of the ads and declaring "hey, we killed trees, definitely not recycled!" wasn't really warming my heart to Mafia Wars either, whether true or not. The glued-to-the-sidewalk effect was just lame, though!
thwarted 16y ago
Reminds me of when some cities (I think at least Chicago) fined IBM for their chalk-based painting of the side walk "Peace, Love, Linux" campaign. IBM said it was supposed to wash off, but it didn't.
whyenot 16y ago
This reminds me of about 10 years ago when IBM spray painted "Peace Love Linux" on the sidewalks in SF. They didn't get away with their vandalism either. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/04/19/ibm.guerilla.idg/index.html http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/04/19/ibm.guerill...
aresant 16y ago
Getting onto the front page of Hacker News, Reddit, Digg, Forbes, SFGate, Cnet, Wall Street Journal, and every major paper in the country thanks to AP release? Charge is "documented acts of sidewalk vandalism"? Zynga marketing team super win.
- nkassis 16y ago
  I don't know, this one might bite back. And, it just made Zynga sound more "douchy" (couldn't find a better word). Vandalism is never cool unless it's cool art (Good graffiti artist)
  - lionhearted 16y ago
    > Vandalism is never cool unless it's cool art (Good graffiti artist) True story: I'm in Vietnam right now, and I was walking back from a bar a little after midnight with an American friend of mine. He's a very very cut and dry, straight and narrow, ultra-law abiding, patriotic type fellow. We see a guy tagging up a wall with spray paint - not artistically, just vandalism. I say to my friend, "Should I go stop him?" See, I hate seeing stuff get destroyed. I usually stand up to bullies, thieves, vandals if I catch them. I'm a little bit trained in martial arts, enough that I feel safe, and I figure someone's got to look out for society. My friend, very straight and narrow, he says, "Nah, nobody stands up to the government here. Let him have his civil disobedience." What a shocker for me! But then he tells me the government has been somewhat bad to the people, and only now are people feeling safe to push back a little. So we walked on, leaving him to tag the wall unhindered.
watmough 16y ago
There was a Brinks-style truck in Manhattan last week, with some slogan like "Blow up this truck in Mafia Wars". Seems like pretty poor taste, and are folks on Wall Street really playing Mafia Wars?
FlemishBeeCycle 16y ago
http://www.google.com/search?q=reverse+graffiti http://www.google.com/search?q=reverse+graffiti It's always interesting to see how municipalities handle "reverse graffiti" as an advertising campaign.

16 points by jaybol 16y ago

staunch 16y ago

No such thing as bad press?

hugh3 16y ago
There's such a thing as overly-expensive press. I hope that there's a sufficiently large fine levied against Zynga for this ad campaign to discourage others from following suit. There's enough advertising in the world already. I don't want it showing up illegally on walls and pavement as well.

arram 16y ago

I've seen this on my street - I wondered how they got away with it. Guess they didn't.

sabj 16y ago

I thought these were terrible - just grafitti / vandalism. Acting macho on some of the ads and declaring "hey, we killed trees, definitely not recycled!" wasn't really warming my heart to Mafia Wars either, whether true or not. The glued-to-the-sidewalk effect was just lame, though!

thwarted 16y ago

Reminds me of when some cities (I think at least Chicago) fined IBM for their chalk-based painting of the side walk "Peace, Love, Linux" campaign. IBM said it was supposed to wash off, but it didn't.

whyenot 16y ago

This reminds me of about 10 years ago when IBM spray painted "Peace Love Linux" on the sidewalks in SF. They didn't get away with their vandalism either. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/04/19/ibm.guerilla.idg/index.html http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/04/19/ibm.guerill...

aresant 16y ago

Getting onto the front page of Hacker News, Reddit, Digg, Forbes, SFGate, Cnet, Wall Street Journal, and every major paper in the country thanks to AP release? Charge is "documented acts of sidewalk vandalism"? Zynga marketing team super win.

nkassis 16y ago
I don't know, this one might bite back. And, it just made Zynga sound more "douchy" (couldn't find a better word). Vandalism is never cool unless it's cool art (Good graffiti artist)
- lionhearted 16y ago
  > Vandalism is never cool unless it's cool art (Good graffiti artist) True story: I'm in Vietnam right now, and I was walking back from a bar a little after midnight with an American friend of mine. He's a very very cut and dry, straight and narrow, ultra-law abiding, patriotic type fellow. We see a guy tagging up a wall with spray paint - not artistically, just vandalism. I say to my friend, "Should I go stop him?" See, I hate seeing stuff get destroyed. I usually stand up to bullies, thieves, vandals if I catch them. I'm a little bit trained in martial arts, enough that I feel safe, and I figure someone's got to look out for society. My friend, very straight and narrow, he says, "Nah, nobody stands up to the government here. Let him have his civil disobedience." What a shocker for me! But then he tells me the government has been somewhat bad to the people, and only now are people feeling safe to push back a little. So we walked on, leaving him to tag the wall unhindered.

watmough 16y ago

There was a Brinks-style truck in Manhattan last week, with some slogan like "Blow up this truck in Mafia Wars". Seems like pretty poor taste, and are folks on Wall Street really playing Mafia Wars?

FlemishBeeCycle 16y ago

http://www.google.com/search?q=reverse+graffiti http://www.google.com/search?q=reverse+graffiti It's always interesting to see how municipalities handle "reverse graffiti" as an advertising campaign.