A marketing stunt could lead casual games maker Zynga into legal trouble, according to a report from SFGate. It started when the game developer glued dozens of fake $25,000 bills (right) across five locations in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley area. Each bill included the address of the Mafia Wars Las Vegas site. The site has a grand prize drawing of $25,000, so one lucky winner can actually get his or her hands on some real bills.
The city had to bring in a steam cleaner to get rid of the bills, which puts the cost of clean-up and administration on taxpayers. City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent a letter to Zynga threatening a lawsuit. The office is demanding all of the information about the marketing campaign, including “emails, work orders, scope of work, contracts, marketing plans or other records — that show when and where the graffiti in San Francisco was placed, and by whom.” It also asks the company for “a proposal to fully resolve the issue,” and won’t accept mere payment for the cleanup.
That’s likely because payment would be easy for Zynga to spare. The company’s net worth has been estimated in the billions, so a few thousand for city cleaning would hardly make a scratch. The company may also have to give a formal apology, or even take disciplinary action against the marketers who created the campaign. In the meantime Zynga is already planning another stunt, to blow up an armored truck in the middle of the Nevada desert, once the game reaches 10 million players.
